Ruh roh!

Obesity 'epidemic' turns global



Obesity increases heart disease risk

People are getting fatter in all parts of the world, with the possible exception of south and east Asia, a one-day global snapshot shows.

Between half and two-thirds of men and women in 63 countries across five continents - not including the US - were overweight or obese in 2006.

The Circulation journal study included over 168,000 people evaluated by a primary care doctor.

Experts said the findings were deeply worrying.

Excess body weight is pandemic


Lead researcher Beverley Balkau


People who are overweight have a higher risk of heart disease, Type II diabetes and other diseases including some cancers.

The International Day for the Evaluation of Obesity (IDEA) study looked at two measures of fatness - waist circumference and a calculation called body mass index or BMI.
A BMI (weight in kg divided by square of height in meters) of 18.5 to 25 is considered healthy.

A BMI over 25 is deemed overweight and greater than 30 is obese.
Pandemic

Just 7% of people in eastern Asia were obese, compared to 36% of people seeing their doctors in Canada, 38% of women in Middle Eastern countries and 40% in South Africa.

Canada and South Africa led in the percentage of overweight people, with an average BMI of 29 among both men and women in Canada and 29 among South African women.


168,000 people were evaluated by a doctor on a single day. The US was not included in the report.
A BMI over 25 is deemed overweight and greater than 30 is obese.



In Northern Europe men had an average BMI of 27 and women 26 - just into the overweight category. In southern Europe, the average BMI was 28. In Australia BMI was 28 for men and 27.5 for women while in Latin America the average BMI was just under 28.

Waist circumference was also high - 56% of men and 71% of women carried too much weight around their middle.

"The study results show that excess body weight is pandemic, with one-half to two-thirds of the overall study population being overweight or obese," said Beverley Balkau, director of research at the French National health research institute INSERM in Villejuif, who led the study.

That puts the rest of the world close to par with the US, long considered the country with the worst weight problem.



168,000 people were evaluated by a doctor on a single day. The US was not included in the report.
A BMI over 25 is deemed overweight and greater than 30 is obese.



An estimated two-thirds of Americans are overweight and a third of these are obese. In the US, the lifetime risk of developing diabetes, is also high - 33% for men and 38% for women.

In the study, the overall frequency of heart disease was 16% in men and 13% in women. There was a high frequency of heart disease in Eastern European men, 27%, and women, 24%, in contrast to Canada where the frequency in women was 8%, and in men 16%.

The frequency of diabetes varied across regions. Overall, 13% of men and 11% of women were diagnosed with diabetes.

Ellen Mason of the British Heart Foundation said: "It is tragic irony that whilst much of the world is starving, many developed countries across the world are in the grips of an obesity crisis.

"Whilst it is vital not to stigmatise people in our society for being overweight, it is important we all know the health risks from being obese. The worrying increase of diabetes in the UK is clearly linked to rising obesity levels and plummeting physical activity levels. Being obese or diabetic, or worse, both, increases your chance of getting heart disease.

"Whilst the UK may not be the worst offender in this global study, we are aware that it's a major health issue in our country. After seeing the heart attack death rate reduce in the UK in the last few years, there is a real risk that this figure could go back up if diabetes and obesity continue to rise as they currently are."



A BMI over 25 is deemed overweight and greater than 30 is obese.

I Can Actually Tell You From Going To The Gym That Bmi Is All Crap I Kow People With High Bmi And Look Great

Aye, that it is.

BMI isn't the most accurate way to measure one's overweight-ness. I'm 5'4 and 150 lbs (plus tax!), and I think that puts me over the obese portion for my age, yet I have only ~9% body fat (9% according to water dislacement, 11% according to caliper).

BMI assumes that a large chunk of the weight is fat (hence its ratio of fat to height), but if a lot of one's weight is something else (ie muscle) it throws the whole thing off.

to be honesty with everyone it is just numbers and the bottom line is how do you feel

I partially agree, as BMI is flawed; it's supposed to help one get an idea of how "overweight" they are according to some arbitrarily assigned norm.

% body fat is something to watch out for though, as some seemingly "skinny" people have relatively high %, it's just not as obvious. High % is also linked to high bp, diabetes, and a slew of other diseases. A person might look and feel great despite their high %, but they might not be feeling the insidous creeping of the long term effects of the excess fat.

I think fat people are cute so this is good news to me ^_^

I told Voradan only to loose weight if it starts threatening his health. He has always been a big guy so I lucked out! Yay!

I know I am weird >_<

-RMS Carpathia-

Agreed.

Most the time I was in the Army I was labeled overweight (20% or higher body fat%, they use the height/weight ratio), yet every time I was sent on the carpet with the group of "fatbodies" I'd always get the "WTF are you doing here?" look on the Captains face.

In the AF they used to do the whole measure your waist and neck, then subtract the neck from waist. That was a fullllllllllllllll load of crap. you have guys with 34" waists, and 16" necks and they are all of a sudden 18% bodyfat? uh.... ok....

The BMI is even worse. They dont take ANY considerations into your body build. According to this chart, you look at wrestlers, say Batista. He is 6'5", 300.. so according to that BS BMI chart, his BMI would be 40% and according to all the charts out there, he should be dying anytime soon....

I put absolutely NO stock in this whole load of crap, and still say if they want to measure how much in danger people are of this, they should do the most accurate way, and put them in a pool and measure it that way..

thats the main thing

Tu Bddy i have agreed with that term for years besides most dr's who say you obese and fat are over there alleged BMI themselves

I shall henceforth dub BMI as Butt Massage Intensity. All in favor say aye!