Obesity Essay Examples

Obesity is starting to become an unstoppable problem, and not everyone is looking for ways to solve this problem as we all should. For the first time in history, it is possible for the children in this generation to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. There is a lot of reasons that are influencing the increase of obese people, but the most important ones are bad habits, not enough exercise for both kids and adults, excessive consumption of fast foods or processed foods, and an unhealthy amount of time spent on technology every day.

Obesity puts people at a higher risk for serious diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, thyroid, etcetera. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more. Obesity is caused by eating more calories than a person burn in daily activity or exercise, and over time, these extra calories add up and cause people to gain weight.

There is a lot of ways a person can determine if they are obese or not, but the most common is to calculate the person’s BMI. Waist circumference is another way to determine if someone is obese or overweight and if they have extra belly fat. For women, abdominal obesity is defined as 35 inches or more, and for men, it is defined as 40 inches or more. To avoid health problems, it’s best to keep waist size below these numbers. Too much belly fat is particularly harmful to the human body because it does not works at its best. Other ways could be by measuring the thickness of a skinfold which is a pinch of skin and fat, and techniques such as ultrasound that are more precise than BMI.

Because there can be significant weight differences between one obese person and another, obese people can be classified into subgroups.Those with a BMI between 30 and 34.9 are in class 1, or moderately obese. They are more likely to develop certain diseases than someone with a healthy weight. A man or a woman with a BMI between 35 and 39.9 is considered to be in class 2, or obese. At this stage, the obesity is severe and it is crucial to lose weight. Lastly, people who are morbidly obese have a BMI of 40 or higher and they would be classified as class 3 obesity. They absolutely must lose weight or their life expectancy could be considerably shorter. An increasing number of people are falling into this subcategories.

To get a better idea of what the percentages and statistics on BMI really mean, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides the following example: to be healthy, a person who stands 5 ft. 9 in. or 175 cm, must weigh between 125 and 168 pounds which is between 56.7 and 76.2 kg. A person is considered overweight once they reach 169 pounds or 76.7 kg and obese at 203 pounds or 92 kg or higher.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the past 15 years, obesity has gotten out of hand and increased tremendously to the point where it affected 13.7 million children and adolescents between the age of 2-19, and 93.3 million adults. The CDC also mentions that Hispanic people have the highest obesity prevalence at 25.8 percent, followed by African Americans at 22 percent, then Whites at 14.1 percent.

The most common causes of obesity are: eating a poor diet of foods high in fats and calories such as fast food or processed foods; having a sedentary lifestyle meaning that the person is inactive for the most part of their day; not sleeping enough, which can lead to hormonal changes that make the person feel hungrier and crave certain high-calorie foods; genetics, which can affect how a person’s body processes food into energy and how fat is stored; growing older, which can lead to less muscle mass and a slower metabolic rate, making it easier to gain weight; pregnancy, because weight gained during pregnancy can be extremely hard to lose and may eventually lead to obesity.

Psychological factors can increase extremely the chances of becoming an obese person. The American Psychological Association mentions that “obesity is also frequently accompanied by depression and the two can trigger and influence each other” meaning that when a person is depressed tends to eat more, and this is because when a person is eating it gives a sensation of pleasure and helps relieve the bad moment a person is going through, but when a person is obese tends to get depressed more easily because of all the stereotypes that only the healthy or skinny people is attractive, and this cycle is called the obesity-depression cycle. One in every ten Americans deals with depression each year, and according to Dennis Thompson depression can lead to overeating and weight gain.

The article “The Vast Majority of American Adults are Overweight or Obese, and Weight is a Growing Problem Among US Children” affirms that “The highest proportion of overweight and obese people – 13 percent of the global total – live in the United States”(Murray). meaning that 13 percent of the people who live on earth, which is equal to more than 160 million people, and are overweight and obese is currently residing in the United States.

Decades ago families ate only the food that they could grow on their own, including meat from animals, fruits and vegetable grown in gardens, and grains grown and harvested in fields. Since the introduction of more factory jobs resulting in less farming families, obesity has been a growing problem worldwide. Less people are producing their own food and relying on grocery stores and restaurants to provide the food for their family.

According to the website QUORA growing your own vegetables is not very difficult, but most people decides not to do it mainly because of time, money, skills, or just simple convenience, and according to people it is faster and easier to buy tomatoes at their local store, but they do not know the benefits a person can get over the years, from growing their own, because they would not only be sure the tomatoes are one hundred percent natural, but they also be assured that there is not extra preservatives that only make products less healthy.

Fast food is a really huge factor contributing to why we have that many obese people, because “it is easier and faster to go to a fast food restaurant and order an unhealthy meal”, than cook something healthy at home, and also fast food seen to be addictive it’s cheap and easy to get anywhere, and the portion sizes are way too large for anyone to be eating. Food choices of individuals depend of several factors including behavioral, cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic influences.

The percentage of women reporting no physical activity jumped from 19 percent to 52 percent between 1988 and 2010; the percentage of inactive men rose from 11 percent to 43 percent over the same period (Bach).