What are the appropriate uses and limitations of existing height-weight tables?
Adipose tissue is a normal constituent of the human body that serves the important function of storing energy as fat for mobilization in response to metabolic demands. Obesity is an excess of body fat frequently resulting in a significant impairment of health. The excess fat accumulation is associated with increased fat cell size; in individuals with extreme obesity, fat cell numbers are also increased. Although the etiologic mechanisms underlying obesity require further clarification, the net effect of such mechanisms leads to an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Both genetic and environmental factors are likely to be involved in the pathogenesis of obesity. These include excess caloric intake, decreased physical activity, and metabolic and endocrine abnormalities. Hence, a number of subtypes of obesity exist. The precise determination of the amount of body fat requires technically sophisticated methods that are available only in research laboratories. For public health
