Is being overweight a disease?
Being overweight means having more body fat than is optimally healthy. More than 1 billion people of world’s population across all age groups is considered either overweight or obese, and the number is still increasing.
Overweight or obese people tend to have self-esteem issues and face discrimination against them and are therefor having troubles finding an employment. Moreover, the latest researches have also shown that being overweight or obese actually causes cancer and it seems to even overtake smoking as a cause of cancer.
Being overweight also reduces your life expectancy.
What are the main causes of becoming overweight?
Usually the reason for being overweight is consuming (eating) more calories than your body needs or can expend. Some of the factors that can lead to that are overeating, poor nutrition, alcoholism, stress, insufficient sleep, smoking cessation and others.
What is BMI?
The body mass index (BMI) is a statistical measurement which compares a person’s weight and height. It is a useful tool to estimate a healthy body weight based on how tall a person is.
BMI is used differently for children. It is calculated the same way as for adults, but then compared to typical values for other children of the same age.