Are you getting obese?

Bridget Lawal (Not real name), a 35-year-old lady was in this category. She was happy she was an orobo until she visited a hospital for a medical check-up and discovered from the test that she has high blood pressure, because she is overweight. High blood pressure is not a death sentence, but she felt foolish […]

Bridget Lawal (Not real name), a 35-year-old lady was in this category. She was happy she was an orobo until she visited a hospital for a medical check-up and discovered from the test that she has high blood pressure, because she is overweight. High blood pressure is not a death sentence, but she felt foolish because she thought being ‘fat ’was evidence of good living.

She began to re-evaluate her lifestyle and these where her observations. She eats snacks at lunch time, she hardly walks around in her office, because her job as a secretary requires that  she sits on her desk. She hardly exercises; she gets home late and so, eats late most often. These habits she discovered made her become overweight/obese.

According to Mrs. Victoria Ajako, Assistant Head of Department of the Dietetics Department at the National Hospital, Abuja, says obesity is the accumulation of excess fats in the body usually in the layer underneath the skin. “When the energy intake is greater than the energy expenditure, there will be accumulation of excess fat; and this is stored in body. In children, it starts from the tender age depending on the eating habit in the home. Some of these children eat refined food that more of sugar and less of fibre. Eating so much unhealthy oil can build up to bring about obesity,” Mrs. Ajako says.

A person is considered obese when his or her weight is 20 per cent or more above normal weight. The most common measure of obesity is the body mass index or BMI. A person is considered overweight if his or her BMI is between 25 and 29.9; a person is considered obese if his or her BMI is over 30.

Your BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters.

According to health experts, the following could cause obesity.

Age. As you get older, your body’s ability to metabolize food slows down and you do not require as many calories to maintain your weight. This is why people note that they eat the same and do the same activities as they did when they were 20 years old, but at age 40, gain weight.

Gender. Women tend to be more overweight than men. Men have a higher resting metabolic rate (meaning they burn more energy at rest) than women, so men require more calories to maintain their body weight. Additionally, when women become postmenopausal, their metabolic rate decreases. That is partly why many women gain weight after menopause.

Genetics. Obesity (and thinness) tends to run in families. In a study of adults who were adopted as children, researchers found that participating adult weights were closer to their biological parents’ weights than their adoptive parents’. The environment provided by the adoptive family apparently had less influence on the development of obesity than the person’s genetic makeup. In fact, if your biological mother is heavy as an adult, there is approximately a 75% chance that you will be heavy. If your biological mother is thin, there is also a 75% chance that you will be thin.

To prevent obesity Mrs. Ajako says combining the five food components properly will help. “All the food components complement one another. One gives energy, another is a body builder, another is protective. For children, they need the protein for body building. They need the vitamins and mineral, because they help in absorbing all the other major nutrients.” She advised that instead of giving snacks to children for school, parents should give fruits. She also urges everyone to exercise more.