If you are like most people, you probably haven’t thought too much about obesity and, in fact, it really isn’t something that affects you. Sure, you or someone in your family might be a bit overweight, but they certainly aren’t obese, right? Not necessarily, and when you hear the obesity facts below, you might just be shocked to find out how much obesity affects you as well as our entire society.
Obesity is on the rise in America with the rates doubling since 1980. In fact, 30% of US adults are obese! That means that it is very possible that you or someone you know falls into this category. This has far reaching effects on our population and experts are saying that for the first time in 200 years we may see our life expectancy rates decline – all due to problems caused by obesity.
If obesity rates keep up, the younger generation can look forward to more disease and health problems along with a shorter life span. Not to mention the financial burden on society caused by the medical expenses of all these extra health problems.
While you might have thought the term “obesity” was reserved for people who were so overweight that they couldn’t leave their homes, I’ve got an eye opener for you. A person is considered to be obese if they weigh 20% more than the “normal” weight for their age and height. You know those little insurance charts that tell you that you should weight 135 pounds – well if you are supposed to weight 135 and you weigh a mere 162 then you are obese!
Of course, there are more scientific methods to determine if you are obese or just chubby. Since muscle weighs more than fat, those weight tables are not really accurate for everyone so a common way of measuring this today is the BMI or body mass index which measures the actual fat percentage. If you have a BMI over 30 then you are considered obese.
Some of the more startling obesity facts are centered around children. With kids spending more time in front of the TV and the wide range of non-nutritious fattening snacks, it’s no wonder that obesity rates among children and teens are rapidly rising. This puts them at risk for health problems that were once only seen in adults. These problems include type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, bad sleep patterns, joint problems, liver disease and even depression. Not to mention that an obese child has a pretty good chance of turning into an obese adult.
As an obese adult, you face even more severe health problems including increased risk of plenty of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease and even cancer. This can really put a damper on your enjoyment of life and has a financial cost to both you and society with the estimated health costs relating to obesity being about $100 billion.
