Obesity

Obesity is considered an endemic disease, as it is widespread in a geographically limited population. Specifically, obesity is a typical, though not exclusive, prerogative of Western countries, where about 1/3 of the inhabitants are overweight.

According to ISTAT data, in 1999 the overweight Italians were about 33.6% of the population, while the obese were "only" 9.1%. Since then, the spread of obesity has not shown any slowdowns, so much so that it has now reached the threshold of 10% (9.8%). The number of overweight Italians is also growing, from 33.6% in 1999 to the present 34.2%. The most alarming data concerns the spread of the problem among children of which Italy holds, together with Greece and Spain, the sad record. Over a third of Italian children between the ages of six and nine are in fact in conditions of overweight or obesity (34.1%).

Insights

Obesity: What it is and how it is classified

Obesity is a morbid condition characterized by an excess of adipose mass compared to lean mass, based on the limits considered normal for age, sex and height.

Generally speaking, we talk about obesity when:

body weight exceeds the ideal weight by at least 20%;

or when:

the "body mass index (I.M.C) is greater than 30.

Your weight (kg) Your height (cm) I.M.C

Comment according to the WHO:

WHO = world health organization

It is not just a question of weight

Among the many definitions of obesity, the following stands out for its simplicity and completeness:

obesity is defined as excessive weight gain due to abnormal accumulation of adipose tissue.

To talk about obesity, it is therefore not enough to note an "important overweight but it is also necessary to evaluate the percentage of fat mass. For example, for the same height, sex, age and weight, a sedentary long-limbed could be obese while his short-limbed and sporty counterpart he could have a normal adipose mass. In the latter case we cannot speak of obesity since the excess weight is mainly due to the greater bone and muscle mass.

The B.M.I is therefore an approximate indicator since the body weight is not conditioned only by the fat mass but also by the lean one.

Fat mass can be measured in different ways: by counting the folds of the skin, evaluating their thickness (plicometry), using bioimpedance (an optional increasingly required in common scales) or using very sophisticated techniques (magnetic resonance, hydrostatic weighing, CT scan, BOD POD etc.).