| Special
Obesity Fact File
2501/ Americans are not
the heaviest people in the world. For example, of American
women, ages 20 to 74, 62 percent are overweight (Body Mass
Index (BMI) of 25 or more) and about half of that population
(34 percent) is obese (BMI of 30 or more). Nearly identical
to the rate in Bahrain, Paraguay and Malta, according to the
London-based International Obesity Task Force. But Pacific
Islanders have the world's highest obesity rate - 75 percent
among Samoan women.
2502/ You can calculate
your own Body Mass Index in the following way.
Weight in Lbs ÷
height (in)2 x 704.5 = BMI
eg You weigh 13 stone
4 lbs and are 5 foot 9 inches tall. There are 14 lbs in a
stone (Please note 1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds) - So you
weigh 186 Lbs. 1 Foot = 12 inches. So you would be 69 inches
tall.
Then to calculate your
BMI:
186 ÷ (69 x 69)
x 704.5 = BMI
ie 186 ÷ 4761
x 704.5 = 27.52 Body Mass Index
A BMI between 20 - 25
(ignore any statistics like these if you are pregnant) is
about right. 25 - 30 and you are overweight. Above 30 you
are obese. Above 40 and you are severely obese. Under 20 and
you are underweight.
There is a quick tool
here to calculate your bmi without the maths! http://www.weightlossgold.com/bmi.shtml
2503/ Worldwide, 750
million adults are overweight and 300 million more are obese.
2504/ In the United States,
15 percent of elementary school children are overweight. Worldwide,
one in five children weighs too much.
2505/ The number of overweight
and obese Americans has continued to increase since 1960,
a trend that is not slowing down. Today, 64.5 percent of adult
Americans (about 127 million) are categorized as being overweight
or obese.
2506/ Each year, obesity
causes at least 300,000 excess deaths in the U.S., and healthcare
costs of American adults with obesity amount to approximately
$100 billion.
2507/ Among 15 American
Indian tribes studied in Oklahoma, 77 percent of adults screened
for diabetes are reported to be obese.
2508/ Poor diet and inactivity,
which contribute to obesity, is reported to be the second
leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.
2509/ An estimated 127
million U.S. adults are overweight or obese, compared with
800,000 to 900,000 Americans affected with HIV (about 300,000
with AIDS), 9 million with cancer, 16 million with diabetes,
and 26 million with heart disease.
2510/ Over nearly 10
years (1991 to 2000), the proportion of the US population
with obesity has increased by 61 percent, according to data
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral
Risk Factor Surveillance System.
2511/ Women who gain
nearly 45 pounds or more after age 18 are twice as likely
to develop breast cancer after menopause than those who remain
weight stable.
2512/ Over 75% of hypertension
cases are reported to be directly attributed to obesity.
2513/ The risk of developing
hypertension is five to six times greater in obese adult Americans,
age 20 to 45, compared to non-obese individuals of the same
age.
2514/ Approximately 45
million Americans diet each year. With about 40 percent of
women and 25 percent of men attempting to lose weight at any
given time.
2515/ American Consumers
spend about $30 billion per year trying to lose weight or
prevent weight gain. This figure includes spending on diet
drinks, diet foods, artificially sweetened products, appetite
suppressants, diet books, videos and cassettes, medically
supervised and commercial programs, and fitness clubs.
2516/ Half of all adults
in the UK are overweight and one in five are obese, compared
with one in ten French people.
2517/ People clinically
defined as obese are twice as likely to die from heart disease
and obese women are 27 times more at risk of developing diabetes.
2518/ Obese men are 33%
more likely to die from cancer and obese women are 50% more
at risk of dying from breast cancer.
2519/ A Report by the
Comptroller and Auditor General in the UK linked obesity to
30,000 deaths a year (in the UK) and a shortening of life
by 9 years on average. On a conservative basis, he estimated
the costs to the NHS at £0.5 billion a year in patient
care and the costs to the wider economy, for example in sickness
absence, at £2 billion.
2520/ The prevalence
of obesity is increasing world wide, and, in England, has
nearly trebled in the last 20 years.
Click on the links below for more great
facts...
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