Obesity and overweight :Statistics, Causes and Consequences

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity is characterized by "abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health."

Basically, obesity is the result of excessive calorie intake relative to energy expenditure for several years.

obesity overweight must be distinguished, which is also overweight, but less important. For its part, morbid obesity is a very advanced form of obesity. It would be so damaging to health that and make the Patient lose 8 to 10 years .

Obesity statistics

The percentage of obese people has increased over the last 30 years. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prevalence of obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally. The increase in the average weight was observed in all ages, in all socio-economic groups.


Worldwide, 1.5 billion adults 20 years and older are overweight and at least 500 million of them are obese. Developing countries are not spared;
In Canada, according to the most recent data available, 36% of adults are overweight (BMI> 25) and 25% are obese (BMI> 30)
In the US, about one third of people aged 20 years and older are obese and another third is overweight;
In France, nearly 15% of the adult population is obese, and about a third is overweight.

Causes of obesity

When trying to understand why obesity is so prevalent, we see that the causes are many and are not based exclusively on the individual. The government, municipalities, schools, the food industry, etc. also bear some responsibility in creating the obesogenic environments.

We use the term to describe an obesogenic environment  that contributes to obesity:

• access to food rich in fat, salt and sugar, high-calorie and low-nutrient (junk food);
• sedentary and stressful lifestyle;
• living environment not conducive to active transportation (walking, cycling).

This obesogenic environment has become the norm in many industrialized countries and is found in developing countries as and as the population adopts a wistern lifestyle.

People whose genetic background makes it easier weight gain are more likely to be victims of the obesogenic environment. However, susceptibility linked to genes can lead to obesity alone. For example, 80% of Indian Arizona Pima obese today. But when followed a traditional lifestyle, obesity was much rarer.

Consequences of obesity

Obesity can increase the risk of several chronic diseases. health issues begin to show after about 10 years of excess weight.

Much increased risk:

Type 2 diabetes (90% of people with this type of diabetes have a problem with overweight or obésité3);

• hypertension;
• gallstones and other gallbladder problems;
• dyslipidemia (abnormal levels of lipids in the blood);
• shortness of breath and sweating;
• sleep apnea.

moderately increased risk:

• cardiovascular problems: coronary heart disease, stroke (stroke), heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia;
• osteoarthritis of the knee;

Slightly increased risk:

• certain cancers: hormone-dependent cancers (women, endometrial cancer, breast, ovarian, cervical, in men, prostate cancer) and the system-related cancers digestive (colon cancer, gall bladder, pancreas, liver, kidney);
• Fertility decline in the 2 sexes;
• dementia, back pain, phlebitis and gastroesophageal reflux.

How the fat is distributed on the body, not to the abdomen or hips, plays a decisive role in the onset of diseases. The accumulation of grease in the abdomen, typical of abdominal obesity, is much more risky than the more uniform distribution (gynoid obesity). Men have on average 2 times more abdominal fat than premenopausal women

Worryingly, some of these chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, now occur in adolescence, given the increasing number of young people who are overweight and obese.

Obese people have a lower quality of life as they age and a shorter life expectancy than those who have a healthy weight. Moreover, healthcare professionals predict that today's youth will be the first generation of children whose life expectancy does not exceed than their parents, mainly because of the increasing incidence of obesity infantile

At last, obesity can become a psychological burden. Some people feel excluded from society because of the beauty of criteria proposed by the fashion industry and the media. Given the difficulty to lose their excess weight, others will live great distress and anxiety, which may be up to depression.