Why is obesity bad for health?
There are many significant consequences for someone’s health if they are overweight or obese. To judge if someone is the correct weight, doctors use a measurement called the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is the relationship between someone’s weight and their height. A normal BMI is between 18 and 24. Overweight is defined as a BMI of between 25 and 29 and obesity is a BMI of 30 or more. It has been found that the risk of death as a result of being overweight increases above a BMI of 24 and one study called the Framingham Heart Study showed that the risk of death within a period of time increased by one percent for each extra pound of weight between the ages of 30 and 42 and by two percent between the ages of 50 and 62. Estimates suggest that more than 30,000 deaths in the UK in 1998 were attributable to obesity, which equated to about nine years of life lost for every obese person. Some of the health problems associated with obesity are set out below. Heart disease: The risk of heart di
