“Obesity now causes more cases of four common cancers than smoking…” (1)
Around 25% of adults in the UK suffer with obesity, but what does ‘being obese’ actually mean? We hope that this blog will help you to understand the condition, how it affects the body and mind and effective obesity treaments in the UK.
What is obesity?
The term ‘obese’ is used to describe a person that is diagnosed as extremely overweight with a lot of body fat.
Consuming an excess of calories is often one of the main causes of obesity – primarily from sugary, fatty foods that lack in vital nutrients – which you do not burn off during the day (through exercise and normal bodily function).
BMI (body mass index), which assesses whether your weight is healthy in relation to your height, is the most common method used to determine whether a person is obese. While it is not a definitive measure of obesity – as some very muscular people may be categorised as obese according to their BMI – it does provide a good indication as to whether you are overweight or obese.
According to the NHS, this is what BMIs indicate in terms of weight for most adults:
- Below 18.5 – Underweight range
- 18.5 to 24.9 – Healthy range
- 25 to 29.9 – Overweight range
- 30 to 39.9 – Obese range
You can calculate your BMI with the exante BMI calculator here.