Many people think that obesity is simply ‘overeating’. However, it is much more complex. Obesity is defined as a complicated, progressive, life-threatening, costly, genetically related, multi-factorial disease of excess fat storage. It has become a dangerous epidemic as approximately 30% of the U.S. is now considered obese – an epidemic that has been increasing since the 1990s.
Obesity also results in significant impairments in health (or co-morbidities – diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, gastric reflux disease, Type 2 Diabetes, joint disease, gout, and many others). Morbid obesity is defined as 30% over a person’s ideal body weight, or approximately 100 pounds overweight, or a body mass index >35.
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