Being “overweight” means that your body has enough extra fat to threaten your health.
The World Health Organization estimated in 2016 that over 1.9 billion adults were overweight worldwide, approximately 40% of all men and women. The problem has become especially more common among children, from just 4% in 1975 to just over 18% in 2016.
Obesity is extremely overweight and has also increased among the world population. Overweight and obesity are more common than underweight and starvation. There are more health problems and deaths associated with overweight and obesity than are associated with underweight.
In economic terms, treatment of health problems and limited mobility related to overweight is expensive, in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
Burden of Obesity
Overweight individuals face a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders such as disabling arthritis, and some cancers (endometrial, breast, ovarian, prostate, liver, gallbladder, kidney, and colon). The risk for these problems increases as body fat increases.
Childhood obesity is linked to adult obesity, disability, and premature death. Children who are obese more commonly experience breathing difficulties, broken bones, and high blood pressure. Overweight youth are also subject to related social, psychological, and emotional trauma.
Treatment for Overweight & Obesity
Overweight and obesity is both preventable and treatable. Long-term success in both prevention and treatment of obesity is associated with education about healthy eating, the development of healthy eating habits, access to healthy foods among low-, mid-, and high-income populations, and regular effort toward physical exertion integrated into a lifestyle. Individual responsibility for overweight combined with access to healthy food and fitness activity is foundational to long-term achievement and maintenance of normal body weight.
According to many studies, treatment of obesity without medication or surgery may succeed temporarily, but long-term maintenance of healthy body weight is uncommon. Lost weight is too often re-accumulated over time. More rapid and significant weight loss achieved by diet and lifestyle changes plus appetite suppressant drugs improves long-term maintenance of normal body weight. Such programs, like 10x.diet, must be followed by lifestyle habits that maintain healthy body weight such as personal effort toward nutritional understanding and healthy diet along with the regular physical activity. It has been proven that greater initial weight loss at the start of a diet promoted by medication results more commonly in sustained maintenance of a lower, more healthy body weight. Published data also supports the long-term use of appetite suppressant medication for long-term weight maintenance as a helpful measure that reinforces lifestyle modification.
