Fighting Obesity

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What is obesity? The term “obese” describes weight ranges that are above what is medically accepted as healthy. It occurs when you eat and drink more calories than you burn through exercise and normal daily activities. Your body stores these extra calories as fat. Obesity also has an affect on things other than your weight like: your energy, health, and economic wellbeing. Obesity has been increasing lately and, despite the many causes of it, the most standard are psychological, environmental, and genetic.

The most obvious symptom of obesity is being overweight. If a person has a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater, then he/she is obese. Due to the extra fat in the neck and chest, an obese person may need to take short, shallow breaths. That makes it difficult for air to flow easily in and out of their lungs, which leads to a shortage of oxygen in their blood. Due to the lack of oxygen in their body, they get exhausted easily and may take a lot of effort to perform simple tasks such as walking upstairs. An obese person gets tired very easily because the ankles and knees need to work twice as hard to be able to support his/her weight and may cause them to become sore and stiff. This could also harm the person’s posture, resulting in a hunched figure.

Genetics are a common risk factor to obesity, whether it is the amount of fat your stores and where it is distributed or how efficiently your body converts food into energy. The obesity gene affects one in ten people. However, it ultimately depends on your lifestyle and eating habits. Unhealthy eating patterns the most obese people tend to follow include a high-calorie diet, eating fast food, skipping breakfast, eating most of your calories at night, and eating oversized portions...

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...e with the highest body mass index (BMI)—a measure of obesity—seemed to demonstrate a series of ‘fat habits’.” (via “7 Habits of Highly Obese People”) By working past these ‘fat habits’, obese people can rise up and overcome their weight issues. Andrew Lansley once said: “We must not constantly talk about tackling obesity and warning people about the negative consequences of obesity. Instead we must be positive- positive about the fun and benefits to be had from healthy living, trying to get rid of people’s excuses for being obese by tackling the issue in a positive way.”

Works Cited

http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Obesity.aspx http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/subtopic/symptoms-obesity http://www.webmd.com/diet/tc/obesity-treatment-overview http://www.joe.org/joe/2008december/a5.php http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obesity/DS00314/DSECTION=risk-factors

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