Obesity And Its Solution

The state of eating food in excess of what the body needs to function effectively resulting in the accumulation of fat in the body is known as obesity. Obesity starts gradually during childhood when children eat a lot to keep up with their rapid growth and development. If their eating pattern are not controlled by adults, obesity may start to set in as over feeding tends to increase the number of fats cells during childhood.

Some of the factors that may be responsible for obesity are : excess intake of food than what a person needs, endocrinal disorder, history of obesity in the family (genetic) inactivity or sedentary life, eating of much fatty foods e.g eating much of take - away foods, diseases etc.

Communication Research Machine (1974) recorded that one can assess his fatness by pinching the back of upper arm lightly. If there is a thick fold of fat in that area, one is probably too fat because the area is the subcutaneous fat deposit in many people. However, there are better scientific methods of knowing whether one is obese or not.

Overweight is not the same thing as obesity as the former is excess lean body tissue than excess body fat in the latter. But the two happen when one over eat and also be inactive. Many obese people have when one over eats and also be inactive. Many obese people have emotional problems, inferiority complex, stressful situation, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Exercises and sensible diet is the only solution to prevent, control and treat  obesity. Halpen (1987) stressed that aetiology of obesity include genetic factors, pathologic mechanism, lack of nutritional knowledge, modern lifestyle, pregnancy, obesity in childhood and adolescence periods, socio-cultural factors in adult life, psychiatric factors and iatrogenic obesity. 

Treatment of obesity must take the following into consideration: physician motivation, patient motivation, diet, exercise etc. To successfully reduce weight, age, duration of obesity, sex, marital status, degree of obesity, emotional adjustment and economic factors must be taken into consideration by weight reduction experts.