BMI, Overweight, Obesity and Ways to Overcome

Overweight is characterized by a body weight that falls above the range associated with minimum mortality, on the other hand, Obesity is severely overweight, with an excess of body fat.

Factors that contributes in excess body weight

1. Genetic factors influence body size and shape, body fat distribution, and metabolic rate. Hereditary influences must be balanced against contribution of environmental factors.
2. Eating more calories and consuming more often is in Lifestyle factors. Furthermore, now a day people consume more refined carbohydrates and underestimate the size of portion which are the reason to be obese.
3. Physiological factors include some component which are-metabolism, resting metabolic rate, thermal effect of food and effect of physical activity.
4. Here, metabolism is the sum of all the vital processes by which food energy and nutrients are made available to and used by the body.
5. Resting Metabolic Rate is the energy required to maintain vital body functions (heart, lungs, body). Thermal Effect of Food is the energy required to digest food and Effect of Physical Activity is the energy expended during physical activity.

Calculation of Ideal body weight

The body mass index, or BMI, is a metric used to estimate the amount of body fat a person has. Though BMI doesn’t measure body fat directly, it correlates with other direct measures of body fat. Only two measurements are involved in BMI-height and weight.

Metric BMI Formula, BMI = (Weight in Kilograms / (Height in Meters x Height in Meters))

English BMI Formula, BMI = (Weight in Pounds / (Height in inches x Height in inches)) x 703

People with BMIs of 30 or more have increased risk of death from a number of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and colorectal cancer. To suppress those attacks the ideal body weight has to be maintained.

Approaches that can be taken to overcome a weight problem

• Doing diet by self motivation
• Diet books
• Dietary supplements and diet aids
• Weight-loss programs
• Prescription drugs
• Surgery
• Psychological help

In case of following diet book we must reject those books that advocate unbalanced ways of eating. Books that promise to quicker weight loss are to attract obese people and by following those anyone may prone to illness. We should accept those books that advocate balanced diet.