Glucomannan and Obesity
The Meaning of Obesity
Literally, obesity means excess body fat. Overweight and obesity are two different things altogether. The word ‘overweight’ means the person is weighing too much for the standard of the person’s age and sex. The weight of our body is mainly due to bones, muscles, fat and connective tissues and body water. Obesity and overweight both mean that a person’s weight is more than the standard weight according to the person’s age, sex and height.
The cause of obesity is consumption of excess amount of fat over time. It does not develop within days or even months. It takes long, sometimes years to become obese. When the calorie intake is greater than the calorie we use, the excess amount generally gets converted to fat and stored in different parts of our body. The factors that modify the conversion are overeating, genetic composition, diet habits (consumption of foods rich is saturated fat) and sedentary lifestyle.
The Effect of obesity
An obese person will have increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cerebral stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea syndrome, gallbladder stone, dyslipidemia, some cancers and kidney problems.
Epidemiology
The prevalence of obesity and overweight problems has increased since the mid-seventies. This is applicable for both the children and the adult persons. NHANES conducted two surveys and the observation shows that the occurrence of obesity has sharply increased from 15.0% (1976-1980) to 32.9% (2003-2004). Among the children of 2-5 years, the rise is from 5.0% to 13.9% and for those come in the group of 6-11 years it is from 6.5% to 18.8%. The adolescent (age group 12-19 years) the prevalence rose from 5.0% to 17.4%.
Many developed and developing countries have included reduction in the cases of obesity in the goals of their national health policy. However, the current available data shows that the curve is decreasing.
How to know whether you are obese or not
The best available way is to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI). It is the standardized, unanimously commended method of determining weight. As I have already said, to determine exactly whether the person concerned is obese, overweight or having normal or lower than that requires his body weight and the height. It is possible for a well-built, strong person with negligible body fat to be stamped as obese using the BMI guide if we do not consider his height. On the other hand, a lean person may be recognized as normal or overweight, considering his height.
The BMI formula makes use of your height and body weight. It is calculated by dividing the weight in kilograms by the square of the height measured in meters – according to the BMI metric formula.
The British BMI formula is weight (in pounds) multiplied by 704.50, and divided by the height (measured in inches).
All these formula is for the adults. Measuring BMI in children is a bit different. The process of calculation is same as adults, but it reflects the ideal values for other children of their same age. Instead of measuring the BMI is decimals, it describes the range of percentile. So it helps to judge against the other children of same age and sex. Any BMI which is less than 5th percentile is considered underweight anything above 95th percentile is considered as overweight.
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