About Obesity

Obesity

Obesity is most often defined as being 20% or more over ideal body weight based on the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Height/Weight Tables. It affects an estimated 34 million Americans and can have profoundly negative health and social consequences.

Morbid Obesity

Also referred to as Clinical or Severe obesity, morbid obesity is a condition in which the body accumulates excessive fatty tissue to the extent that the subjects weight interferes with normal bodily functions and/or causes medical problems (such problems are called co-morbidities). Morbid obesity is considered a serious disease and has been linked to shortened life expectancy. Morbid obesity affects an estimated four million Americans, and, according to former Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, is the second leading cause of preventable death in America. The medical community widely believes that morbid obesity is a chronic disorder, which may be primarily genetic in nature ? inherited from your parents. Therefore, your body was destined to gain weight and there is very little you can do to control this process short of surgery.

Morbid obesity is most often determined by one of the following methods:

  1. If you are 100 lbs over your ideal body weight according to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Height/Weight Tables (Midpoint of weight range for medium frame).
  2. The second method is called the Body Mass Index (BMI).
    If your BMI is less than 35, your condition is probably not severe enough to warrant surgery.
    If your BMI is greater than 35 and you have co-morbid factors, surgery may be an alternative.
    If your BMI is greater than 40, surgery should probably be considered.

In 1992, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a panel of experts to review the problem of obesity and available methods of weight loss and control. The following were among the panel’s findings and conclusions:

  • Obesity is not necessarily due to poor eating habits. Nor does it mean the individual is lazy or lacks self-discipline.
  • A typical obese patient has tried numerous supervised and unsupervised weight loss programs (diets).
  • Almost all diet program participants regained at least the weight lost within five years or less.
  • Weight loss and regain cycles, common to diet programs, can be dangerous and harmful.
  • Bariatric surgery is the most effective method of achieving and maintaining significant weight loss.
  • Gastric Bypass and Vertical Banded Gastroplasty were the two most effective surgical procedures.
  • The lap-band procedure is the least invasive.