Underweight, overweight and obesity

Underweight means that a person is under their ideal weight for their specific gender and height. This means that this person’s BMI (Body Mass Index) is at an 18.5 or lower. Some risks associated with being underweight are having a disadvantage in the hospital, because their nutrition status can deteriorate easily if they aren’t able to eat for a few days, including if they have to stop eating for a surgery. Surgical patients who are underweight are also at risk for death. If an individual is underweight and they get diagnosed with cancer, they will most likely die from starvation before they die from the cancer itself. Even though people who are overweight and obese develop heart problems more often, someone who is underweight can still develop heart problems, and this can cause worse outcomes. Also, those who are underweight tend to have less energy than others.

Overweight means that a person is over their ideal weight for their specific gender and height. Typically this means that their BMI is at a 25 to a 29.9. There are several chronic diseases that can be caused from being overweight. Some of these are diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, gallbladder stones, nonalcoholic fatty liver which leads to fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer, other cancers, and strokes. The risk of these is higher for individuals who are obese, but being overweight gives you a chance of these chronic diseases as well.

Obese means that a person is way over their ideal weight for their specific gender and height. This means their BMI is 30 or higher. Like being overweight, people who are obese can obtain chronic diseases. These chronic diseases are the same as above, which are diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, gallbladder stones, nonalcoholic fatty liver which leads to fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer, other cancers, and strokes. Over 70% of people who are obese suffer from at least one of these major health problems.

There are several preventative measures that can be taken to prevent both underweight and overweight issues in our society and to maintain a healthy body weight .To lose weight, some other ideas would be to choose an appropriate calorie intake, make intakes adequate, avoid portion pitfalls, meal spacing, identify calorie excesses, choose foods low in energy density, consider non-nutritive sweeteners, and demonstration diet. To gain weight, some preventatives are choosing foods with high energy density, portion sizes and meal spacing, and physical activity to gain muscle and fat.