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Eva Sarver

Andrew Davis

English 1113

December 15th, 2017

The Effects of Obesity and How to Lower the Rates

Obesity is a very wide subject to talk about in America because it has been around since

before the 1960s, that's almost over fifty years. Since the topic has been around for long there are

many books and journals dedicated to talk specifically about obesity, which all give different

angles and opinions on the subject from weather or not obesity is genetic to how the obese

person goes through the struggles of living their everyday life. Through several of these articles I

have gathered that obesity is a disease that affects millions of people worldwide and can affect

anyone, even becoming life threatening to those not paying attention to their health but the high

obesity rates can be lowered starting individually which will slowly lower the number globally.

Obesity can be defined several ways but it originally started out being derived from Latin

as “obesus” which weirdly enough meant lean, which is the exact opposite as you think of obese

people these days, but the Latin word gradually changed to mean overweight (Rynearson, 3).

Obesity however isn’t just overweight it's excessively overweight, and is classified as a disease

unlike being overweight, you can test for the difference between obesity and being overweight

several different ways. One way of testing is using body mass index or BMI, an adult with a BMI

higher than twenty-five is overweight and thirty or higher being obese (Alston, 2). Although

some people do say that the BMI isn’t the best way to test for obesity because the BMI doesn’t

take in consideration the age, bone density and does not directly measure body fat so it has been
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proven to be inaccurate at times (Rothman). however, it is still used most commonly by

physicians, scientific studies and in many journals.

Even though, It is extremely difficult for every journal to track down and calculate

everyone who is obese, many journals just have rough estimates of who is obese. To start with a

bigger picture of how many people are obese “worldwide, in 2014 about 2 billion adults were

overweight and 600 million people had obesity” (Levine, 1523) those number don’t include

children and might be worldwide but there still triple digits in the millions. In those millions, one

third of adult Americans are obese and a further one-third or more that are overweight today,

which have only been rising since 1976 (Alston, 2). A newer discussion about is graphically

where obesity rates are higher in America was brought up in 2011 was whether or not low-

income communities has a higher obesity rate than the higher-income communities. One study

showed that over one third of the Washington DC district who are African American or low

income earning of fifteen thousand or less are obese. The study also showed that one in five

children in the same district were obese (Talib, 1). Each study about who's more obese and how

many people are obese might vary between each study but they all appear to have one thing in

common, they continue to grow larger throughout the years.

Obesity is a disease that does come with many health-related complications like “The

metabolic and systemic abnormalities associated with obesity lead to conditions such as

“metabolic syndrome,” which precedes the development of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular

disease, and death.” (Alston, 2). There is also an increased risk in any type surgical operation on

an obese person to try and fix most of these symptoms. However, one of the biggest

complications from obesity is death and it is talked about in A heavyweight battle over CDC's

Obesity Forecast when they talk about the number of obesity related deaths in America, the
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article starts out with an estimated four hundred thousand deaths but ends with one hundred and

twelve thousand deaths per year the numbers (Courzin, 770). There is a drastic gap between

those number because it is so difficult to estimate how many people are actually dying from

obesity versus a person existing condition. The same article also explains that the death rate from

obesity is decreasing because there are medical improvements in treating cardiovascular diseases

related to obesity. Other than cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, death however there are several

other diseases related to obesity including but not limited to knee osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and

gastroesophageal reflux disease. Some of these symptoms however are said to take place over a

prolonged effect of obesity and can sometimes not be reversed after having the symptom over an

extended amount of time.

Along with the diseases that can come from obesity there can be other non-physical

reactions from obesity like mental symptoms. An obese person may feel a social stigmatism, or

outcast because of their excessive weight, one example is being shamed by airplane companies,

having to buy more than one seat for themselves because they are too big for just one seat. An

obese person will most likely also have a higher health care rate as well, because some

companies feel that they are more liable so they raise their prices because of the health

complications with obesity.

Obesity can start out simply by just gaining a couple of new pounds and months or years

later it has collected to become an excessive amount of uncontrollable weight. The

uncontrollable amount of weight gaining overtime is caused from an unbalanced energy input,

caused by eating more calories than you are burning on a daily routine for an extended amount of

time. There are many reasons for inputting more calories than you are burning such as

overeating, a decrease in physical exercise or just not realizing you're in taking too many
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calories. The opposite is said for losing weight, there needs to be the burning of more calories

than you intake. Which is said to be a different number for everyone showed in a study in the

book obesity, “The average intake was 2570 calories per day. Even with this generous diet, the

loss of weight was 0.5 pounds per day.” (Rynearson, 47). In order to keep the weight off after

getting to the desired weight the number of calories and the amount of exercise to be neutral as to

not gain weight or lose weight.

To change the high rates of obesity it must first start individually because such large

percentages of obesity in just America alone cannot be solved in a week and especially

worldwide since it does take time and effort to lose weight it will take years to even put a dent in

the number. There are several ways for an obese person to lose weight however, some people

may lose the weight for a short period only to gain it back later after a failed crashed diet, instead

the goal should be to lose the weight slowly and keep it off.

However, If a severely obese person is having difficulty losing weight to where it has

become hazardous to their health to not do something about their excess weight a physician

might recommend bariatric surgery, which is not like liposuction which is used to remove fat to

sculpt the body for cosmetic reasons. Bariatric surgery is a fat removal surgery to help a person

lose weight they cannot through diet and exercise, these are usually people with a BMI of greater

than forty. Bariatric surgery is a weight loss surgery that can be performed several different

ways, from a sleeve gastrectomy, adjustable gastric band, or the most common is a gastric

bypass. However, with these surgeries can come lots of responsibility, in post and pre-operation

care and a new diet that must be followed after surgery. One example of the diet that is needed to

be followed before and after surgery is eliminating caffeine, staying hydrated, not eating large

meals but having snacks throughout the day but not skipping a meal. It is also said that to
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increase the surgery’s effectiveness the person should lose five to ten percent of their current

weight ( Kusher, 39).

A person with less than a BMI of forty without the option of a bariatric surgery will need

to lose weight directly through diet and exercise. However, it will take a lot more time and be a

lot harder than a bariatric surgery. There are several different options out there to help them,

there are specialist out there to specifically help people lose weight like personal trainers and

dietitians. Everybody is different so not everyone will need different workouts and eating plans

and a specialist can help a person find their perfect balance between the two to help lose weight

and keep it off. If a person cannot afford help from a professional there are several books and

free online resources they can use and still lose weight.

America alone has an insanely high obesity rates and to change that it takes hundreds of

small changes in the way we operate as a country. There are several options to help lower the

rates the first thing to do is to look into why some of the wealthier countries have the higher

obesity rates however, studies show that some of the poorest Americans are the most obese

(levine, 1523). Another option to help lower rates is to look at children and adolescent obesity

rates and how to lower them, one study found the one in five children are obese (Talib, 1). Even

though trying to help lower America's obesity rates raises more questions than answers, these

questions help raise awareness that the obesity is a disease that can cause painful symptoms.

Raising awareness about obesity is important because every day Americans might not know the

difference between being overweight and obesity, or what a BMI is. Raising awareness can for

obesity can help people understand what a healthy BMI is and how to help lower their BMI if it

is too high.
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In conclusion, obesity is a disease that should be taken seriously because its

conscientiousness can be enormous from the symptoms it causes to a person's body to the effect

it can have on the total amount of obesity rates worldwide. Even though obesity has been around

for over fifty years the rates seem to keep increasing worldwide, with more and more people

becoming obese means we keep finding knew symptoms of obesity, from cardiovascular

diseases to diabetes. However, one of the deadliest symptoms we know that can come from

obesity is death. In order to lower the obesity rates, it has to start with the individual people and

work its way up to each country and then in the end the numbers will show nationally. Treating

obesity can take time and hard work but in the end, it will be worth it especially if you never

have a BMI of over forty so you don't have to have a life changing surgery.
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Works cited

Alston, Julian The Effect of Farm and Food Policy’s on Obesity in the United States. New

York: springer nature, 2017 print

Couzin, Jenifer. “A Heavyweight Battle Over CDC’s Obesity Forecast”. AAAS, 308. 57230,

2005: 770-771. web. 14 November 2017

Kusher, Robert. Dr.Still christopher Nutrition and Bariatric Surgery CRC press, 2014. Print

Levine, James A. "Solving Obesity without Addressing Poverty: Fat Chance". Journal of

Hepatology, 63, 2015: 1523-1524. web November 14 2017

Rothman, KJ "BMI- Related Error in the Measurement of Obesity". international journal

of obesity, 32. 2008: web

Rynearson, Edward Obesity. Springfield: Charles C Thomas, 1949. print

Talib, Karim ‘Food Deserts’ Causing Obesity in Low-Income Communities". Washington

informer, 47. 9, 2011: 18 web ProQuest November 14 2017