Obesity and Overweight ( fact )

Obesity is simply defined as too much body fat for our height and sex. Human Body is simpley made up of water, fat, protein, carbohydrate and various vitamins and minerals. A person is considered obese if they have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Overtime, eating excess calories leads to weight gain. Without lifestyle changes to increase the amount of physical activity done on a daily basis, or reduce the amount of calories consumed, people can become obese.

If you have too much fat — especially in your waist area — you're at higher risk for health problems, including high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Some reasons for this higher risk are known, but others are not. For example, obesity
    * raises blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
    * lowers HDL "good" cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is linked with lower heart  disease and stroke     risk, so reducing it tends to raise the risk.
    * raises blood pressure levels.
    * can induce diabetes. In some people, diabetes makes these other risk factors much worse. The danger of heart attack is especially high for these people.

Today way of life is less physically active than it used to be. People travel on buses and cars, rather than walking, and many people work in offices, where they are sitting still for most of the day. This means that the calories they eat are not getting burnt off as energy. Instead, the extra calories are stored as fat.
A range of causes
A range of factors can cause obesity. Factors in childhood and adolescence are particularly influential, since a high proportion of obese children and adolescents grow up to be obese adults.

Factors known to increase the risk of obesity include:

• Genes – researchers have found that genetics play a part in regulating body weight. However these genes explain only a small part of the variation in body weight.
• Birth factors – some studies suggest that a person is more likely to become obese later in life if they experienced poor nutrition in utero, had a low birth weight and weren’t breast fed. However, other studies show that high birth weight is a stronger risk for becoming overweight.
• Eating more kilojoules than you use – whatever your genetic background, you will deposit fat on your body if you eat more energy (kilojoules) than you use.
• Inactivity – for most of us, physical activity is no longer a natural part of our daily schedule. Obese people tend to live sedentary lifestyles.
• Modern living – most modern conveniences, such as cars, computers and home appliances, reduce the need to be physically active.
• Socioeconomic factors – people with lower levels of education and lower incomes are more likely to be overweight or obese. This may be because they have less opportunity to eat healthy foods and take part in physical activities. 

Some Common Symptoms of Obesity are:
If you're obese, it's more serious than being a few kilograms or pounds overweight.
You're carrying a lot of fat on your body.[2]

    * Most of the extra fat will lie either around your waist and chest (making you  'apple shaped') or on your hips and buttocks (making you 'pear shaped').
    * Men who are obese tend to have big waists.
    * Women tend to carry extra weight on their hips.
    * Some women become apple shaped, especially after the menopause