The prevalence of obesity around the world has dramatically increased during the past 30-40 years. In fact, over half of the adults in Europe and the US, and over a third in many Asian countries, are currently overweight or obese, and the numbers just keep on rising.
It is well known that excess weight is linked to many of the leading causes of death, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and several types of cancer. Therefore, many medical and healthcare institutions are working on large-scale programs to make the citizens conscious of this problem and its consequences, and provide guidelines to change their habits towards a healthier lifestyle.
The body mass index (BMI) is a commonly used measurement to classify individuals depending on their weight. The BMI is calculated based on an individual´s weight (in kg) divided by their height (in meters) squared. To this end, a BMI of 18.5-24.9 is considered normal weight, and corresponds to the lowest risks of all-cause mortality. A BMI of 25-29.9 is considered overweight, 30-34.9 class 1 obesity, 35-39.9 class 2 obesity, and over 40 is classified as class 3 obesity. The higher the BMI, the higher the risks.
Whereas obesity is currently considered as a disease, there is much debate regarding the effect of being overweight (BMI 25-29.9) in one´s health. Generally, it is considered that these individuals have an increased risk of all-cause death, however more recent studies have found that this may not be entirely true, and that an overweight individual could have the same risks as a normal weight person. In this sense, being overweight has been considered as “metabolically healthy obesity”, as opposed to the higher BMI values which would be classified as metabolically unhealthy.
In many cases, lowering your BMI to normal levels can be an arduous and lengthy task. Fortunately, losing 5-8% of total bodyweight in an overweight or obese individual is sufficient to significantly improve their general health and reduce or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. This is generally achieved through lifestyle interventions, including modifying eating habits and physical activity. In fact, it has been shown that a 10% loss of bodyweight in a decade decreases over 20% your risk of cardiovascular mortality.
Therefore, these insights demonstrate that even though normal weight is not achieved, just the fact that an overweight individual is losing weight has a significant increase in their overall health, and reduces their all-cause mortality risk, albeit higher than those with normal weight. Thus, the initial goal for an obese person should be not to reach normal weight, but rather to become “metabolically healthy.”
Jonathan Jones, PhD
New Product Development Manager
(Metabolyc Syndrome)
Ref: Stefan N et al (2017). Metabolically healthy obesity: the low-hanging fruit in obesity treatment?
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