Is Obesity a Disease? Exploring the Causes and Effects of Obesity

This article discusses the causes and effects of obesity and explores whether it should be considered a disease. It provides information on the health risks associated with obesity and offers tips on how to prevent and manage it. The article also includes statistics on obesity rates in the United States and Canada.

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There is always a choice. After a long and heavy days’ work there is always a choice for users to
prepare a decent healthy meal or just rush into the various fast food joints in our neighborhoods
and get something quick to avoid the tedious activity of cooking. It is the availability of so many
fast food joints and us being lazy that we continue gaining extra weight. Obesity is primarily
caused by our unhealthy lifestyles of always wanting to eat what is ready and not preparing a
decent meal for ourselves (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, Flegal, 2014). There are other people that are
completely opposed to this fact and they claim that obesity is a condition caused by genetic
factors. Well, is obesity a disease?
First and foremost before we dismiss any claims regarding obesity, it's best that we first
understand the meaning of the term obesity in details. Obesity is often regarded as a disorder that
is associated with an excessive amount of body fat (Furukawa et al, 2017). Obesity is also
associated with various side effects such as increasing the risk of diseases and other health
problems. Some of the associated heart problems that can be brought about by obesity are high
blood pressure, heart conditions and diabetes.
From the definition of the term obesity, we notice that it’s often regarded as a ‘disorder'. This
implies that it's a disease on its own apart from the many diseases it’s associated with such as
diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure, some certain types of cancer and strokes. From
this definition, it is conclusive that we can call obesity a disease because of the many effects that
it has on human health.
Statistics indicated that there has been a rapid increase in obesity cases in recent years. Current
data shows that at least 1 out of 5 individuals in America has obesity. Despite the increase in
obesity cases recently, it is important to note that obesity was stated as a disease as early as the

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17th century. Well, it is the side effects that obesity has such as tremendously reducing a person’s
life expectancy that made it is considered as a disease (Finkelstein et al, 2017).
There have been critics that claim the side effects of obesity are not enough to classify it as a
disease. From that perspective, we all know that all diseases are contracted by various factors
that are unique and have a certain set of characteristics or maybe viruses. Example of some
typical disease is Malaria, botulism and aids just to mention a few. There is a typical way of
contacting all these diseases. Let us take an example of aids, for one to contract aids then there
are certain specific ways of doing that such as through having sexual intercourse with an infected
person, and through sharing of sharp objects with an infected person among other ways. For
obesity, it’s caused by overeating and high levels of inactivity.
When we compare obesity to drinking and smoking we notice that smoking has some really
harmful side effects such as lung cancer while drinking causes liver cirrhosis and alcoholism.
Despite the effects that smoking and drinking have on the human body, they are not considered
as a disease. Obesity, however, is considered a disease because it causes direct damage to the
body. Its effects can be manifested within the human body through increased fat contents under
major body organs. Obesity is something that can be seen within an individual, it can be
physically manifested (Cawley & Meyerhoefer, 2012).
Moreover, according to the Centers for Disease control and prevention, CDC obesity is basically
a body mass index of 30 or higher and is usually calculated based on an individual weight and
height. According to the CDC, about 18% of children and 34.9% of adults have obesity (Flegal,
Carroll, Kit, Ogden, 2012).

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In addition to that, In Canada, statistics showed that 20.1% of Canadians aged between 18 and
above were classified as obese. 20.1% is approximately about 5.2 million adults. It is projected
that by 2025 the rate of obesity for adults in Canada will shoot up to 34.5%. This was projected
based on the increase that was witnessed between 2013 and 2014. There was an increase of 0.7%
of men from 2013 where the obesity rate lied at 21.1% while in 2014 it was at 21.8%. For
women, the rate of obesity was at 18.7% in 2014 from 14.5% in 2003 (Popkin, Adair, Ng,
2012).
This information has been presented in the figure below;
Figure 1.0: Percentage changes in rates of obesity in Canada (Twells, Gregory, Reddigan,
Midodzi, 2014).
In regard to age-groups and obesity, the diagram below shows the distribution

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Figure 1.1: Obesity in relation to age groups of Canada (Twells, Gregory, Reddigan,
Midodzi, 2014).
The table below shows the various ranges of underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese
for a selected range of heights.
Table 1.0: Table showing the distribution of height, weight and obesity factor
Height Underweight Normal weight Overweight Obese
5’5” Less than 106.5lb 106.6 - 144.2lb 144.3-173.2lb Over 173.3 lb.
6’0” Less than 136.0lb 136.1-183.8lb 183.9-220.5lb Over 220.8 lb.
1.63m Less than 48.8kg 48.9-66kg 66.1-79.2kg Over 79.3kg
1.83m Less than 61.8kg 61.9-83.5kg 83.6-100.2kg Over 100.3kg

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As mentioned earlier It is projected that the will be an increase in the rate of obesity among
Canadian adults. In 2025 it is projected that the rate of obesity among adults will be at 34.5%.
Well, obesity is a very serious condition and it’s increasing at a really alarming rate both among
children and adults as well. As discussed earlier in this particular write-up obesity is a disease
that has some really harmful effects. Based on that fact there is a need that people to take action
and try to fight obesity by all means possible. The good things are that obesity can easily be
avoided and also can be dealt with (Gotay et al, 2013).
This write-up revealed that the primary cause of obesity is a high intake of junk foods coupled
with high levels of inactivity. The only possible way that obesity can be dealt with is by doing
exactly the opposite of that. Various means have been proposed on how obesity can be
prevented. Some of these means have been outlined below;
a) Following healthy eating, plan-This requires that the food that one eats is closely
regulated. The regulation should be in such a way that the meals are of low-calorie but
should be of dense nutrients such as vegetables, fruits or maybe whole grain. In this, it is
also important to cut off junky foods and avoid regular snacking (Twells, Gregory,
Reddigan, Midodzi, 2014).
b) Regular Exercise-This requires that an individual gets some time to carry out exercises at
least 200-400 minutes a week. This time should be used for moderately intense exercises
so as to prevent weight gain. Some of the activities that one can engage in could be
swimming, long runs and fast walking among others.

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c) Have knowledge and avoid food traps that cause you to eat a lot-One should identify
various situations that make them trigger out of control eating. This involves keeping a
track of patterns and trends that makes one hungry, how they eat and what they eat.
Through these established trends and patterns then a person will be in a position to have
total control of their eating habits (Pedersen & Febbraio, 2012).
d) Monitor your weight-This involves the regular/constant checking on the progress of one’s
weight. It keeping track of whether one is losing or gaining weight.
e) Being consistent-In all of the above procedures one should be consistent so as to obtain
expected results within the shortest time possible.
Finally, it can be concluded that obesity is a condition that is really dangerous and anyone could
end up a victim. It is therefore important that appropriate action is taken in dealing with obesity.
It is a disease. It also causes various diseases and conditions such as heart failure, high blood
pressure, some types of cancer and diabetes among others (Locke et al 2015).

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