Obesity - How Much Is Too Much?

Obesity has been considered one of the most common diseases all over the world. The term disease is absolutely justified because obesity predisposes to sickness and early death from a large number of causes.

The seriousness of being fat is emphasised by statistics that show a death rate more than fifty percent greater than normal in fat individuals in the same age groups. The view of the etiology of obesity has undergone considerable changes both in the past and recently. Most obesity was once assigned to "glandular conditions." Later, the saying "You're fat because you eat too much" became popular. This is a bulletproof fact but it entirely evades the issue of how much is too much.

The energy-balance equation distinctly shows that too much merely means more than is necessary to supply the energy needs of the body. Since beyond this point, additional food is stored as fat, the amount one eats must be viewed in relationship to one's activity pattern. For example, a study of obese high school girls revealed that they ate, on the average, less than a control group of normal weight girls. The obese girls had much less physical activity than the control group and were eating too much only in relationship to their physical activity.

This example stresses the fact, so easily forgotten, that there are two sides to the energy-balance equation. Moreover, recent studies have revealed a startling physiological relationship, namely, that low levels of physical activity may cause increased eating, i.e the less physical activity one performs, the more he eats and, consequently, the fatter he is.

It is clear that very low levels of activity do not induce similar reductions of food intake but actually stimulate eating. The implications of these findings for energy balance in a society where so many of us fall into the sedentary category are obvious, and the elucidation of the factors responsible will be of considerable importance.

By: Devin Greenfield

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