OVERWEIGHT AND ITS DANGERS

When a person consumes too much  food, especially carbohydrates and fat, than he actually needs to maintain his body mechanism and perform his daily activities, the excess calories generated by this  food is stored as fat. A person is considered overweight when this fat is about 10% in excess of the ideal fat for his height, and obese at over 20% excess. Obesity, the condition of being obese or seriously overweight, is a common but serious nutritional disorder, affecting the poor and rich alike.

Height body fat.

8-20% of body weight (men).

13-25% of body weight (woman).

Indicators of Obesity.

1. Triceps Skin fold Thickness: The measurement of the fold of skin at the back of the upper arm (triceps) can be used to determine whether a particular person is too fat (obese), normal too thin. The standard triceps skin fold  thickness for normal weight adult is 12.5mm for male and 16.5mm for female. Females are naturally expected to be fatter than males. Higher figures are indicators of overweight or obesity.
2. Waist measurement: Waist measurement is a reliable indicator of how fat or thin a person is. A woman whose wait measures more than 40 inches are considered obese.

Types of Obesity:

Obesity is classified into two types depending on when it manifest.

Toddler/Juvenile Obesity (Lifelong Obesity): This type of obesity starts in childhood. Some children are overweight right from womb, causing their mothers to undergo caesarean section. This is to say that obesity poses danger to life even at birth! In most cases, especially where there is no concerted effort at reducing calories intake, childhood obesity develops into adulthood and even become worse. This is because the child grows up with higher number and sizes of adipose tissues capable of storing more and more fat.click for more details on how to prevent underweight and obesity.

Children that are well fed in infancy would maximize their potential for growth and fatness better than those with little or no food. According to research, fat cells increase in number in the first two years of life and again just before puberty (12-15 years). Avoiding overfeeding children at these periods might reduce their potential for obesity.

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