Fitness and Health

Obesity is defined as an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure in that the excess energy intake leads to an increase in body fat. In Portugal, almost half the population are overweight and nearly one million adults suffer from obesity. In Brazil the numbers are not much different.

These numbers are troubling, among other causes, linked to more sedentary lifestyles and eating habits change, which occurred over the past decades, which has favored the consumption of refined grains, sugars and saturated fats, instead of the traditional Mediterranean diet rich in whole grains, fish, vegetables, fruit and olive oil.

Considered, however, by the World Health Organization as an epidemic, obesity affects longevity and quality of life. By favoring diseases such as type II diabetes, hypertension or dyslipidemia, overweight and obesity lead to a significant increase in cardiovascular risk. It is estimated, for example, hypertension is 2.5 times more frequently in obese individuals than in individuals of normal weight.

Obesity occurs when the number of calories consumed is greater than the spending: when this happens, the calories are stored in the body in the form of fat mass, and may affect overall health.

There are several methods of classification of overweight / obesity:

The Body Mass Index (BMI)

The Body Mass Index (BMI) or Quetelet Index is the most convenient and usual for assessing the adequacy of the weight and height of an individual. Like any other measure BMI tries to define the ideal weight of a person, and its use has advantages and disadvantages.

According to World Health Organisation considers that there is excess weight when BMI is less than 25 and that there is obesity as a BMI greater than 30.

Obesity, overweight-BMI-calorie-diet

However, in some cases, particularly among athletes, the BMI is not reliable in the measurement of obesity, since it does not distinguish between the relative percentage of fat mass and lean mass as tables traditional weight – height. As a result, individuals with high rates of muscle mass, can be classified as overweight or obese.

Therefore, BMI should ideally be used in conjunction with other methods of assessment of body composition (anthropometry, bioimpedance), and this because 1) correlates poorly with muscle mass (or simply does not “speak” it) and 2) the picture situation: you get two pounds of body fat and lose two of muscle. BMI will continue with the value and therefore classified as healthy. But in fact worse, because it won a “backpack” two pounds of fat that will have to move to “a weaker engine” (because they lost muscle).

Waist

The waist and a simple method that is related to body fat distribution. It is measured using a tape measure at the midpoint between the lower edge of the rib and the iliac crest.

Risk of metabolic complications:

The BMI provides no information on the distribution of fat in our body, which is important because excess abdominal fat may have adverse consequences for health. One way to determine the distribution of fat is waist circumference.

The waist circumference is not related to the height of a person and is a simple and practical method to identify people who have an increased risk of complications related to obesity. If waist circumference is greater than 94-102 cm in men and 80-88 cm in women, this fact translates into an excess of abdominal fat that will increase the risk of health problems, even if your BMI is within the limits of normality.

The measurement of waist circumference divides people into two categories: those with a distribution of the android type of fat mass (often referred to as “apple” in Anglo-Saxon), indicating that most of their body fat is intra- abdominal and distributed around the chest and stomach, leading to an increased risk of diseases related to obesity, and individuals with a distribution of body fat type gynoid (often referred to as “pear”), indicating that most of their body fat is distributed by the hips, thighs and buttocks. Obese men are more likely to have the form of “apples” while women are more likely to form ma “pears.”

Recently, American Heart Association reclassified obesity as the biggest risk factor for heart disease. The alarming trend that precedes this reclassification is that most American adults are overweight or obese (54.9%).

Treatment of overweight and obesity light (BMI <35 kg / m2) is composed of diet and exercise to achieve the desired weight loss. Exercise reduces the percentage of fat mass in a linear fashion with a preference for loss of abdominal fat.