What is obesity?

Obesity or overweight means you have extra body fat. It’s a chronic (long-term) and complex condition.

Obesity has direct and indirect effects on many body systems, and it can affect your overall health and quality of life.

A healthcare provider such doctors can help you find the treatments and management strategies for your body and health.

What are the symptoms of obesity?

No specific symptoms, but your functional capacity and fitness will be changed over time, you could feel breathlessness, palpitations (fast beats) and easily getting tired.

How to check?

• Body mass index (BMI): the BMI will be calculated and weight will be classified accordingly
• Body shape: Providers may measure your waist circumference/girth of abdomen

BMI classifications

Healthcare providers classify obesity by your BMI:

• Normal range: BMI 18.5 to less than 25 kg/m² (kilograms per square meter).
• Overweight: BMI 25 to less than 30 kg/m².
• Class I obesity: BMI 30 to less than 35 kg/m².
• Class II obesity: BMI 35 to less than 40 kg/m².
• Class III obesity: BMI 40+ kg/m²/morbid obesity.

When you think about the BMI scale, it’s important to remember the BMI scale doesn’t accurately predict specific health risks.

Waist circumference

Waist circumference of more than 35 inches in ladies  or 40 inches in gents can be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease or Type 2 diabetes.

What causes obesity?

Many things may play a role such:

Certain medications: Medications you take to treat other conditions may contribute to weight gain. Examples are antidepressants, steroids, anti-seizure medications, diabetes medications and beta-blockers.

• Disability: Adults and children with physical and learning disabilities are most at risk for obesity. Physical limitations and lack of education can contribute.
• Eating habits: Consuming more calories than your body needs, eating ultra-processed food, high-sugar foods and drinks, and foods with high amounts of saturated fat may cause overweight.
• Genetics: some people with obesity carry specific genes (obesity-susceptibility genes) that affect appetite.
• Lack of physical activity: Screen time — like watching TV, playing video games or spending time on your mobile phone or laptop are much connected to physical fitness decline and of course increased medical sickness
• Lack of sleep: Missing the adequate number of sleeping hours will affect your heart and brain health as well. Sleeping 7 hours recommended for all adults
• Stress: Your brain and body react to stress by making more hormones like cortisol that manage hunger. When you’re stressed, you’re more likely to eat high-fat, high-sugar food (comfort food).
• Underlying health issues: Diseases like metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome can cause side effects like weight gain. Mental health issues like anxiety and depression can lead to eating high-calorie foods that activate the pleasure centers in your brain.

What are the complications of obesity?

Obesity affects your body in many ways. For example, it may cause metabolic changes that increase your risk of serious illnesses. Obesity may also have direct and indirect effects on your overall health.

Metabolic changes

Your metabolism is how your body converts calories into energy to fuel your body. When your body has more calories than it can use, it converts the extra calories into lipids and stores them in your body fat. The fat cells themselves will be enlarged. Enlarged fat cells secrete hormones and other chemicals that cause inflammation.

Inflammation can lead to insulin resistance so your body can’t use insulin to lower the sugar and fats in your blood. High levels of sugar and fats in your blood lead to high blood pressure. Combined, these conditions lead to metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a common factor in obesity. The syndrome also increases your risk of developing diseases like:

• Cardiovascular diseases: including coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, heart attack and stroke.
• Fatty liver disease: When your liver begins storing excess fat, it can lead to chronic liver inflammation (hepatitis) and long-term liver damage (cirrhosis).
• Gallstones: Higher blood cholesterol levels can accumulate cholesterol in your gallbladder and make cholesterol gallstones and gallbladder diseases.
• Kidney disease and Type 2 diabetes: Having obesity specifically raises your risk of Type 2 diabetes and kidney chronic disease .

Direct effects

Excess body fat can crowd the organs of your respiratory system and put stress and strain on your musculoskeletal system. This contributes to:

• Arthritis.
• Asthma.
• Back pain.
• Sleep apnea.

Having obesity increases your risk of conditions and diseases like:

• Certain cancers,including esophageal, pancreatic, colorectal, breast, uterine and   ovarian.
• Depression and mood disorders.
• Female infertility and pregnancy complications.
• Issues with memory and cognition, including a heightened risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Diagnosis and Tests

How do healthcare providers diagnose obesity?

• Your healthcare provider will measure your weight, height and waist circumference at your appointment.
• They may do body composition tests like a bone density test
• They’ll ask about:
• Your historyof medical conditions and treatments, including medications, and your family.
• Your weight history, including your experience with any weight management strategies that you’ve tried.
• Your lifestyle, including your current eating habits, how you sleep and how much activity you do in your daily life.
• Your mental well-being, They may ask about stress and other things that could affect your mental health.
• Your vital signs, and they may order blood tests.

How is obesity treated?

By finding weight loss plan that works for you. Since everyone is different, it may take some trial and error to figure out which therapies work best:

• Changing what you eat: You’re unique. That means you should tailor any change in what you eat to what works for you. There are ways to make meals packed with healthy food. Your provider can suggest scientifically proven eating plans like the Mediterranean diet or the DASH diet.
• Building activity into your day: Activity burns off calories and there are many ways to boost your activity
• Mental health support: Counseling, support groups and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help support positive changes. They can also help you manage stress and address emotional and psychological factors that may be working against you.

Medication for weight loss

Medications aren’t the whole answer to weight loss, but they can help tackle it from another angle. The following drugs have U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval as obesity treatments:

• Bupropion-naltrexone (Contrave^®): May reduce cravings and food intake.
• GLP-1 agonists: Controls appetite, makes you feel full earlier and may lower your blood sugar. Ozempic^® is an example of a GLP1 agonist.
• Liraglutide (Saxenda^®): Reduces appetite and slows digestion.
• Orlistat (Xenical^®, Alli^®): Reduces absorption of fat from your gut.
• Phentermine-topiramate (Qsymia^®): Makes you less hungry.
• Phentermine (Adipex-P^®, Lomaira^®, Suprenza^®): Decreases your appetite. It’s approved for use for three months at a time.

Weight loss surgery

If you have class III obesity, bariatric surgery may be an option for you. Bariatric surgery procedures work by changing your to regulate how many calories you can consume and absorb. They can also reduce the hunger signals that travel from your digestive system to your brain. Bariatric surgeries include:

• Duodenal switch.
• Gastric band (LAP band).
• Gastric bypass (Roux-en-Y).
• Gastric sleeve (sleeve gastrectomy).

Can obesity be prevented?

Preventing obesity is easier than treating it. Examining your habits and making reasonable changes now can help you prevent future obesity. Here are some examples:

• Make small changes: Do you have a daily snack habit or “pick-me-up,” such as a sugary drink, which is high in calories? Consider replacing it. Just 150 extra calories a day can add up to 10 extra pounds in a year. That’s equal to a snack-size bag of potato chips, or just two double-stuffed sandwich cookies.
• Add physical activity: Alternatively, consider what you might do to spend an extra 150 calories in a day by finding an activity that’s right for you and your fitness level.
• Shop intentionally: Stock your home with healthy food and save sweets and treats for special occasions when you go out.
• Cultivate overall wellness:

• Reduce your screen time, go outside and get some fresh air.
• Manage your stress and try to get adequate sleep to keep your hormone levels stable.
• Focus on positive changes and healthy activities rather than how your efforts affect your weight.

What can I expect if I have obesity?

Having obesity increases your risk of serious medical conditions. But obesity doesn’t mean you have those conditions or there’s nothing you can do to prevent them. Remember, weight loss of just 5% to 10% can significantly improve your health risks. Sticking with a long-term treatment plan can help you maintain weight loss.

What can I do to avoid regaining lost weight?

You may think your weight loss journey ends when you reach a certain weight. But obesity is a chronic disease. That means you’ll need to continue the steps you take to lose weight, like shopping intentionally and being active several days a week.