Obesity - Defining the "Real" Problem

There is no question that obesity is a real problem worldwide. It is reported to be one of the greatest health concerns of our time. The Centers for Disease Control states that "Obesity is a contributing cause of many other health problems, including heart disease stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. These are some of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Obesity can cause sleep apnea and breathing problems as well as limit mobility. Obesity can also causes problems during pregnancy or make it more difficult for a woman to become pregnant." With literally millions of articles claiming obesity facts and statistics on the internet, not to mention print, radio and film, obesity is readily defined as a root cause claiming the lives and lifestyles of our families and our communities. Or is it?

Is obesity really the cause of all these problems, or is it more accurate to say that obesity is merely another symptom of the true underlying problems that plague our society? Although one article can not define the complexity of the symptom of obesity we can surely gain an understanding and start to right our thinking with regard to the issue by defining a few of the variables involved.

• Physical: Some of the more physical or tangible causes of obesity are the lifestyle factors. What are we doing or not doing to create this problem? A severe imbalance in our nutritional intake coupled with lack of proper physical activity is prevalent among those who suffer from obesity.


• Mental: At the very least our way of thinking is skewed when it comes to the topic of obesity. Thinking of it as a cause rather than a symptom is evidence if this upside down thinking pattern. We need to get our mental game up to par before we can even consider making change.


• Psychological: The emotional and psychological factors surrounding obesity are as varied as those who suffer from it. Our relationship with food and the way we feel about exercise can certainly be both the cause and the cure for this problem.


• Social: The people we surround ourselves with can add to or detract from our leading a healthy lifestyle. More social functions take place around a centerpiece of unhealthy foods than I care to even think of.


• Corporate: Industry capitalizes on our dysfunction around food and exercise. 100 calorie packs of junk are consumed in great quantity disguised as healthy alternatives. We ingest chemicals we would otherwise never consume in the name of dietary supplementation. We are promised we don't need to exercise if we take this or wear that.


• Government: Although on one end of the spectrum it appears the government is taking a stand and calling us to action with regard to this issue, the actions of government itself often lead us in direct opposition of this goal. Since "we the people" are our government, we need to take this responsibility seriously and look to make change in our political policy.
  

I could go on and on but the fact remains, the solution to our obesity epidemic does not lie in fighting obesity itself, it lies in fighting the issues that lead to this symptom. All the obesity statistics, facts, and figures can not help us unless we first resolve our thinking epidemic. By gaining an understanding of the root causes we can then stand ready to defeat what is said to be one of our greatest health risks of all times.

The History of Obesity

Obesity is simply fatness in a degree higher than being overweight. The energy intake coming from food is stored as fat because the body does not use it. Obesity has quite an impact in one's physical health that many degenerative diseases are directly and indirectly linked to obesity as observed in the history of obesity. It may even have a much worse impact on a person's mental health. Throughout the history of obesity, its reputation varies from appreciation and the opposite among cultures and in time.

Take a look in the history of obesity and we'll learn that this is truly an age-old health condition. Ancient Egyptians are said to consider obesity as a disease, having been drawn in a wall of depicted illnesses. Perhaps the most famous and earliest evidence of obesity is the Venus figurines, statuettes of an obese female torso that probably had a major role in rituals. Ancient China have also been aware of obesity and the dangers that come with it. They have always been a believer of prevention as a key to longevity. The Aztecs believed that obesity was supernatural, an affliction of the gods. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was aware of sudden deaths being more common among obese men than lean ones as stated in his writings. In certain cultures and areas where food is scarce and poverty is prevalent obesity is viewed as a symbol of wealth and social status. To date, an African tribe purposely plumps up a bride to prepare her for child bearing. Before a wedding can be set, a slim bride is pampered to gain weight until she reaches the suitable weight.

Throughout the history of obesity, the public's view and status of obesity changed considerably in the 1900's. It was regarded as unfashionable by the French designer, Paul Poiret who designed skin-revealing clothes for women. About the same time, the incidence of obesity began to increase and become widespread. Later in the 1940's, Metropolitan Life Insurance published a chart of ideal weights for various heights. They also advocated that weight gain parallel to age is not ok. The government and the medical society became more hands-on with obesity by initiating a campaign against it. This was preceded by a study of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases revealing obesity among the high ranks. Since then various diet and exercise programs have emerged. In 1996, the Body Mass Index (BMI) was published. This statistical calculation and index determined if a person is obese or not. At this time, obesity incidence have soared, led by children and adolescent obesity, tripling in just a few short years, greater than any number in the history of obesity.

Perhaps the most controversial is the independent film, Super Size Me. Released in 2004, Super Size Me was written, produced and directed by American independent filmmaker, Martin Spurlock in an exploration of the prevalence of obesity in the USA. He documented 30 days of his life in an experiment of eating only McDonald's food with completely no exercise. He began the project as healthy and lean but ended up overweight. It was later followed by several other documentaries and a few changes in the McDonald's menu. The history of obesity should be well studied so precautions can be practiced and thus prevent obesity from spreading.

Over the years and in the history of obesity, it seems to worsen despite growing awareness and combating techniques that it has been called an epidemic.

Fatter and Fatter - The Definition of Obesity

What is the definition of obesity? This is a serious concern for everyone who knows they are carrying a little extra baggage. Apparently this is more than half the population these days! An amazing 2/3 or 66% of American people are now overweight according to the Centers for Disease Control. And therein lies the problem. Obesity is now defined by the American Medical Association as a disease. So if you're too fat and you're wondering if you have crossed the line into obesity status keep reading.

Signs of obesity include first and foremost your weight obviously. Is your weight too much for a person of your age, body type and gender? If a woman is 20% above what is considered the normal range for her height then she is obese. Are you large boned, are you an athlete with a lot of muscle mass? Then give yourself a few pounds. What is considered a healthy weight for the average person? The chart below is based on a Body Mass Index of 20 - 25. These are considered healthy weights because they have the least risk for some of the diseases associated with obesity, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Height Weight

4'10" 97 - 121

4'11" 99 - 123

5'0" 101 - 127

5'1" 105 - 132

5'2" 110 - 136

5'3" 112 - 140

5'4" 114 - 145

5'5" 119 - 149

5'6" 123 - 156

5'7" 127 - 158

5'8" 129 - 162

5'9" 134 - 167

5'10" 138 - 173

5'11" 143 - 178

6'0" 145 - 182

6'1" 149 - 187

6'2" 156 - 193

6'3" 158 - 198

6'4" 162 - 202

6'5" 170 - 211

6'6" 172 - 215

6'7" 175 - 220

From Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter

Published by Family Health Publications

Because there is such a wide range it's important to discuss your weight with your doctor and let him help you determine your health risks. Other signs of obesity are sleep apnea, hypertension, stress, incontinence, menstrual irregularities, excess facial hair and depression. If you decide to see a doctor, look for a doctor who understands the importance of eating according to the glycemic index who can individualize a weight loss program for you.

The chart above is for adults. If you believe your child is overweight you need to intervene in a serious way. According to the Health and Medical Research Foundation, in 1968 5% of all children were overweight. In 2004 the numbers had risen to 18% in children 6 years to 11 years old. For those between the ages of 12 years to 17 years 15% were overweight. In 40 years the number of overweight children has roughly tripled. One third of American Indian children are obese. Obesity is also more common in Latino and African American children. No doubt these childhood obesity statistics are due to poor choices, lack of parental supervision and perhaps a lack of affordable, nutritious food.

The health risks for obese children are immense. The Center for Disease Control has linked excess fat to 20 different health problems from high blood pressure to liver cancer. We know that poor diets and inactivity are the causes of obesity and overweight children usually become overweight and even obese adults. Today our children are more sedentary than any other generation and at the same time they are bombarded with television advertisements for unhealthy foods. We need to be vigilant about their nutrition and limiting foods with few nutrients and saturated fats.

What about fast food? Does fast food cause obesity? It is not a coincidence that in the years that the obesity statistics have risen so dramatically that the fast food industry now dominates our urban landscapes. Every corner it seems has a fast food restaurant. Even if parents have the best intentions with both parents working it's a huge temptation to just do what is convenient. Fast foods are high glycemic foods that are full of trans fats, the worst saturated fats. French fries and hamburgers raise blood sugar and do not have enough nutrients to make them worth the calories. And they are full of calories! A quarter pounder with cheese has 530 calories with 270 calories being the saturated fat. So does fast food cause obesity? When you eat it often you are not getting a nutritious diet but one high in unhealthy fat.

Obesity is everyone's problem because it adds to the burden of our health care system. Some other critical facts about obesity include the tremendous expense. According to a recent issue of Time magazine we spend an astonishing $147 billion a year on diet related illness. Cheap food and poor dietary choices extract an extremely high price in terms of being sick and more susceptible to disease. It may soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death. It's time to educate ourselves about the role of good nutrition in losing weight and maintaining the fat loss through a healthy lifestyle. Educate yourself so you can educate your children and be a healthy role model.

What Are The Causes Of Childhood Obesity?

Today, the rise in childhood obesity has several causes. The main cause of obesity is certainly children eating too much and/or not performing regular exercise or being generally inactive. The extra calories that are not able to burn up through exercises or physical activities will translate into fat, and when this fat becomes excessive and more, one will become obese. This difference results in weight gain and will vary from children to children that was due to few factors such as genes, health issues, physical inactivity as well as psychological issues also contribute to weight gain and may be what the causes of obesity are. Even though the main cause of obesity is underlying disorders, nevertheless, it is also closely related to people lifestyles as well.

Poor eating habits and food choices

Today, the way we prepare food and the no of time per day is totally different as compare with our ancestors did in the old time. During the old time, everything need to be cooked from scratch, but now with the help from modern equipments, the time and effort to prepare food became simple and faster. This is one of the reasons why now fast food restaurants dominate our diets.

By study how the children eat today; you will know what the main cause of childhood obesity is. Small changes in their daily diets can have large help enabling you to prevent childhood obesity. The best healthy choices of food include vegetables and fruits instead of sugary snacks. The most popular choices include carrot and bananas, celery sticks, apples and even salads that include a large variety of vegetables. By helping children understand and choosing the correct and better foods during the childhood time, definitely will ensure that they make the correct choices as they move into adulthood.

Bad behavior is also one of the causes. This group of children eats food that is low in nutrition and high in fat. This group of children eats fast food meals, rich desserts and drinks with a lot of sugar. They also usually overeaten, and the food that they consume has many empty calories. In other words, the food that they eat does not provide enough nutrition for a children needs. This same group of children eats lots of sweets food which in general have empty calories.

Lack of Exercise

Lack of regular exercise is a factor that has contributed to this being one of the causes of childhood obesity. Children who spend a lot of time watching TV programs will have a greater risk of child obesity than those who go outside playing or sporting. This is typically true when the children are eating fast food while watching television or playing video games.

In the pass, children like to play sports more often, enjoy outside activities as forms of entertainment and walk to school. But now a day, children are completely opposite from the pass. The sports our children like to do these days include watching television, playing computer game, surfing internet, chatting, and any game they choose while exercising only their mind, head and hands only. When you combine the poor choices in food and the lack of exercising, there is a high chance that childhood obesity will end up lead to disease.

Genetics

Genetics and DNA have been found to be a contributing factor in the causes of childhood obesity. Unfortunately, some children are naturally predisposed to obesity. These children are born with genes that cause them to put on weight more quickly than other children. The children with certain genes end up storing the fat more easily than other children. There is not much that these children can do about their genes, but there are steps that they can take to conquer the obesity.

Children parents can also aid in determining your chances of dealing with childhood obesity. If children parents had a problem with overweight, chances are the children will deal with the same issues. This makes it very important that you keep an eye on your children and their action and habits. Our DNA can not be changed. We can do some small changes in other areas that can make a great deal of improve on your child obesity. Some small changes, such as walking to school, playing outdoor games rather than letting children stay at home and avoid exercise. The simple and regular exercise can help your children avoid childhood obesity.

Psychological issues and Stress

Some study say that about 10% of people that are mildly obese was cause by psychological or stress problems. Some children have a difficult time dealing with stress so they use food as a comfort when they feel, and many children are prone to eating in response to negative emotions like being bored, feeling anxious or being angry.

Each child has to contend with different factors in their lives. The causes of obesity are can also be viewed as being weakness, a lack of willpower or a lifestyle choice of overeating and not exercising enough.

Environments

The environment too plays a role in the causes of obesity. The family home is an important place to learn about proper nutrition and enough physical activity. Attitudes, Habits, and beliefs about food selection and how to spend family leisure time are critical factors to forming a healthy relationship with food. Children spend a lot of time in school, their food choices at school become important and it was influenced by the school eating environment.

Modern lifestyles have improved our quality of life but also contribute greatly to physical inactivity. Cars are used for short trips, and the number of walking trips the average American children takes each year have decreased. Today only about 10% of public school students walk to school compared to the large no of student a generation ago.

Obesity - What Is It?

The medical world describes the cause of obesity as follows: "An increase in body fat (both visceral and nonvisceral (subcutaneous) requires that energy intake be increased over energy expenditure." This short description is followed by a lengthy "however" and is destined for doctors who are trained to understand what is written.

In short, obesity has many causes, among which are included genetic disorders, gland disorders, hormonal disorders and metabolism disorders, only to name a few. Suffice it to say that if you want to find the real reason for your obesity, you will need to consult a medical doctor.

The general opinion on obesity could also be summed up as: "people who don't look that great anymore", but this is only a popular point of view, trust me I know, I used to be obese. Obesity is a real epidemic, a disease of enormous proportions that is spreading fast all over the world.

The extra mass caused by overweight has many consequences, adding a heavy risk index on the obese person's survival chances. Having to heave the extra weight, the individual is also less inclined to be physically active, which set in motion a vicious circle causing an aggravation of the problem.

The added weight also puts extra strain on the body's joints and bones, causing all sorts of discomfort and aches. Often early arthritis set in. In most cases, obesity is caused by consistently eating the wrong type of food, which leads to having much higher cholesterol levels in the bloodstream. This in turn impairs the correct functioning of heart and blood vessels, which can result in high blood pressure and heart failure.

The important layers of added fatty tissue are also the cause of another problem: apnea, or the cessation of breathing during sleep. As the muscles around the throat and neck completely relax during the first phases of deeper sleep, the weight of the fatty tissues causes the throat to collapse, blocking the flow of air. This breaks the cycle of natural recuperation, adding more problems to those already present.

Obesity is associated with many medical problems, most of which improve with weight loss. Both men and women suffering from obesity are at increased risk for the following:

Reduced life expectancy

Diabetes mellitus

Gallstones

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Osteoarthritis

Coronary heart disease

Abnormal blood lipids

Stroke

Sleep apnea

Cancer (colon and prostate cancer in men; uterine and gallbladder cancer in women)

Nowadays, most professionals will measure obesity according to Quetelet's BMI, or Body Mass Index.

It is named after the Belgian scientist, Adolphe Quetelet who invented the method. The BMI is a measurement technique producing a value which takes into consideration a person's height, gender and weight. It is compared to a chart which is obtained by applying statistics (which implies it was defined only after making a very large number of measurements) so that the results are put in evidence in relation to an average.

The BMI is calculated from a person's height and weight as follows:

BMI = body weight (in kilograms) / height (in meters) squared.

A BMI between 25 and 30 kg/m2 is considered overweight.

A BMI greater than 30 kg/m2 is considered to be obese.

A waist circumference greater than 35 inches (88 cm) in women and 40 inches (102 cm) in men indicates that there is an excessive amount of fat in the abdominal area.

There are many BMI calculators online, you will find one easily by doing an online search

for the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" or by typing "BMI calculator".

Obesity is causing the world economy to lose billions of dollars every year.

Obesity Fact - 3 Causes Of Obesity

How many causes of obesity you know? If you are the one who over-weight and trying to lose weight, then you should learn the causes of obesity so that you can be aware of it.

Unhealthy eating combined with sustained lack of activity causes obesity. If food gives you more calories than you burn, your body turns on the storage program and puts on fat. This is the basic idea behind obesity.

The top 3 causes of obesity

1) Disorderly eating habit

This is one of the top reasons for people become obese. With neither the time, nor the inclination to control the meals, it's no wonder we all get fat easily. Most people nowadays live in the sedentary lifestyle, where most trips are taken by car, as well as going to cinema instead of exercise in weekend. That's why we got our health situation out of control.

2) Genetics

Obesity can also be inherited from family members who suffered from it. If your family has a history of obesity, then you would do well to watch your weight. Never blame your family for this, it's your fate and let's find a way to lose the weight.

3) Junk foods

We all are busy in this modern life, but this does not mean that we have to visit the fast food restaurant all the time. For those who like to eat burger, did you know that a single burger is worth a whole meal? Unfortunately, your body does not judge the situation this way. Your stomach will never be filled by a regular burger thus, it will keep asking for more, despite the fact that your body does not need more burgers.

What is the cause for you to become obese? You may have some ideas for it now. Changed your lifestyle if it can help you to lose your unwanted fat, you must take care of your own health.

What Are the Best Exercises For Abs?

You need to evaluate your personal situation before you can truly answer the question, "what are the best exercises for abs?". Some people have the right idea, as in they want their abs to look good, but are in an obese state and don't realize that sit-ups and crunches are in no way going to get them to where they want to be. On the other hand, you could have very little body fat yet have no tone or definition in your abs.

I think that it is safe to say that most people don't realize it but there's a good chance that once the belly fat is all gone, the abs are already most likely in great shape. Meaning that the best ab exercises for most people would be the exercises that helps them lose the belly fat. So lets focus on that.

In order to lose belly fat, of course you need to be knowledgeable about the food that you eat on a consistent basis. This is going to have the biggest impact on how fast your abs will begin to shape up. Aside from that, there are a few exercises that speed up your metabolism and burn core fat more than others. They are the squat and deadlift.

The squat primarily focuses on the lower body but also forces your core section to get a great workout because it is stabilizing and balancing the weight evenly throughout the body. The more you do it, the more core strength you will have.

The squat works two fold in shaping your abs. First as I just mentioned through the stabalizing of the weight, and second because the squat seems to work the biggest muscle groups in your body, thus being one of the most effective workouts in increasing your metabolism and helping you burn belly fat even when you are not around the gym.

The deadlift works in much the same way as the squat in that it is working large muscle groups and forcing your core to balance and stabilize your body throughout the lift. I think overall that the deadlift will give you a better core workout than the squat. This exercise alone if done consistently enough will give you that nice v-look that many athletes have.

Try to implement both of the exercises in your workout routine for maximum results. They truly are the best exercises for abs, even though they are not ab specific.