What is obesity?

Obesity is defined as an excessive accumulation of body fat.

Obesity is present when total body weight is more than 25 percent fat in boys and more than 32 percent fat in girls (Lohman, 1987). Although childhood obesity is often defined as a weight-for-height in excess of 120 percent of the ideal, skinfold measures are more accurate determinants of fatness (Dietz, 1983; Lohman, 1987).

The Problem of Obesity

Not all obese infants become obese children, and not all obese children become obese adults. However, the prevalence of obesity increases with age among both males and females (Lohman, 1987), and there is a greater likelihood that obesity beginning even in early childhood will persist through the life span (Epstein, Wing, Koeske, & Valoski, 1987).

Treatment (Obesity)

Obesity treatment programs for children and adolescents rarely have weight loss as a goal. Rather, the aim is to slow or halt weight gain so the child will grow into his or her body weight over a period of months to years. Dietz (1983) estimates that for every 20 percent excess of ideal body weight, the child will need one and one-half years of weight maintenance to attain ideal body weight.

Physical Activity
Adopting a formal exercise program, or simply becoming more active, is valuable to burn fat, increase energy expenditure, and maintain lost weight. Most studies of children have not shown exercise to be a successful strategy for weight loss unless coupled with another intervention, such as nutrition education or behavior modification (Wolf et al., 1985). However, exercise has additional health benefits.

Diet Management
Fasting or extreme caloric restriction is not advisable for children. Not only is this approach psychologically stressful, but it may adversely affect growth and the child's perception of "normal" eating. Balanced diets with moderate caloric restriction, especially reduced dietary fat, have been used successfully in treating obesity (Dietz, 1983).

Behavior Modification
Many behavioral strategies used with adults have been successfully applied to children and adolescents: self-monitoring and recording food intake and physical activity, slowing the rate of eating, limiting the time and place of eating, and using rewards and incentives for desirable behaviors. Particularly effective are behaviorally based treatments that include parents (Epstein et al., 1987). Graves, Meyers, and Clark (1988) used problem-solving exercises in a parent-child behavioral program and found children in the problem-solving group, but not those in the behavioral treatment-only group, significantly reduced percent overweight and maintained reduced weight for six months. Source(s): www.obesity.com

Excessive fat in body tissues. Obesity increases the risk for many health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute defines overweight as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9 and obese as having a BMI of 30 or greater.
Obesity means "increased body weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat."

You can find more information in http://www.obesity.org
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q...
Way over your average body weight for sex/age/height.
We all have and need fat tissue in our bodies. When there is too much body fat, the result is obesity. Obesity is not a sign of a person being out of control. It is a serious medical disease that affects over a quarter of adults in the United States, and about 14% of children and adolescents. It is the second leading cause of preventable death after smoking.
Think about these questions:

- How do genes, environment and behavior explain obesity?

- How do our bodies regulate our weight?

- Why do some countries or certain ethnic and racial groups have higher rates of obesity than others?

- Who is to blame: the individual, TV, fast foods?

Obesity is a more complicated issue than what it appears. Let us help you understand it better.