PREVENTING OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN THE UNITED STATES.

Running Head: PREVENTING OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN THE UNITED STATES
Preventing overweight and obesity in the United States
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PREVENTING OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY IN THE UNITED STATES
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Preventing overweight and obesity in the United States
Overweight and obesity have been common terms all over health centers and street
check-up stations in the United States of America. Overweight refers to having a body weight
that is more than the normal recommended weight for a certain height. Obesity means that the
body has too much fat and the weight has exceeded the upper overweight limit. The Body Mass
Index (BMI) is the anthropometric tool that is used to assess overweight and obesity. While
overweight could be due to excess fat build-up in the body, it could also mean that the body has
built up extra muscle, bones with high density and water. The United States is one of the highest
ranked states with obesity cases among the middle-aged individuals (40 to 59 years) (Zoler,
2016). Generally, obesity prevalence rate in the US is approximately 39.8% (Hales, Carroll,
Fryar and Ogden, 2017). Among the middle-aged people, the prevalence rate of overweight and
obesity stands at 42.8%; this is the highest amongst all age groups (Xiang and An, 2015) . The
prevalence of overweight and obesity among the people in late adulthood follows, with a rate of
41%, while among young adults the prevalence rate stands at 35.7% (Zoler, 2016).
Obesity presents itself with additional conditions such as stroke, heart diseases, diabetes
and some cancers which lead to premature deaths among the middle-aged population (An and
Shi, 2015). Individuals with obesity spend a lot of money annually on medical bills than those
with a normal and healthy weight. Not only does over-weight and obesity cause serious harm on
the health of an individual, but also on the economical aspects of both the individual and the
country (Agha, 2017). Economically, there are direct and indirect impacts of overweight and
obesity. Direct impacts include the medical bills incurred to prevent, diagnose and treat
conditions that arise as a result of obesity. Indirect impacts include the productivity costs
incurred due to disease occurrence or death (Stenholm et al., 2015). These costs can be

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manifested as either employees being absent due to obesity related health reasons or a decrease
in the productivity of employees at work due to weakening of their body organs, lack of energy
or possible distress. This explains why urgent measures should be taken to reduce the prevalence
rates of overweight and obesity.
My proposed solution entails coming up with a program that contains clear strategies and
guidelines that will effectively and permanently alleviate this menace. This program will work
throughout the US, and will be able to reach even the most remote and hidden geographical
settlements. The program will entail giving knowledge through mass media, demonstration
gather-ups, pamphlets, bill boards, clinical visits to clinics offering services to conditions that
arise as a result of overweight and obesity, home-to-home visits as well as monitoring and
evaluation through telecommunication technology. The program will have its headquarters at
Washington Dc, where clients can visit at any time. This program will work against false health
practitioners who give false and questionable information to clients on how to manage obesity.
All knowledge passed will entail scientifically correct tips that will ensure a permanent solution
to this health problem. Secondly, this program will work closely with the government to ensure
that some fast food restaurants/joints and all health centers with quack doctors are closed down.
The knowledge passed will entail the following; nutrition and physical activity strategies,
early care and childhood education, guidelines for obesity prevention at school, community and
health centers. First and foremost, the program will put forward strategies that are meant to
motivate all healthy and obese people to pay special attention to nutrition and physical activity.
On the nutrition perspective, some dietitians will be deployed all over the health centers in the
US. They will pay keen interest to overweight and obese individuals, and those whose BMI
values are sky-rocketing, to nearly reach the minimum cut-off points for overweight. Other