Learning About Obesity

What is obesity?

Obesity is having an excess amount of body fat for your height. It raises your risk for serious health problems. These include type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

How do you know if your weight is in the obesity range?

To know if your weight is in the obesity range, your doctor looks at your body mass index (BMI). BMI is a number that is calculated from your weight and your height. If your BMI is 30.0 or higher, it falls within the obesity range. Talk with your doctor about what a healthy weight is for you.

To figure out your BMI for yourself, you can use an online tool, such as www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm on the National Institutes of Health website.

What causes it?

Obesity is complex. There is no single known cause. But many things increase the risk of obesity, including your genes, what and how you eat, your activity level, and the rate at which your body burns calories (basal metabolic rate). The medicines you take and health conditions you have can also affect your weight.

What can you do to reach a weight that's healthy for you?

Focus on health, not diets. Diets are hard to stay on and usually don't work in the long run. It can be hard to stay with a diet that includes lots of big changes in your eating habits.

Instead, focus on making small changes to help improve your health. To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. Eating healthy foods and being aware of when you are hungry or full can help. And being more active can help improve your health and help you keep off the weight you lose.

Make a plan for change. Many people have found that naming their reasons for change and staying focused on their plan can make a big difference. Work with your doctor to create a plan that is right for you.

• Ask yourself: "What are my personal, most powerful reasons for wanting this change? What will my life look like when I've made the change?"
• Set your long-term goal. Make it specific, such as "I will lose x pounds" or "I will be able to climb the stairs to my apartment."
• Break your long-term goal into smaller, short-term goals. Make these small steps specific and within your reach, things you know you can do. These steps are what keep you going from day to day.

Talk with your doctor about other weight-loss options. If you have a BMI in a certain range and have not been able to lose weight with diet and exercise, medicine or surgery may be an option for you.

• If medicine or surgery is prescribed for you, your doctor will help you find ways to be more active and follow your healthy eating plan for a period of time. Making these changes into lifelong habits is key to managing your weight, with or without other medical treatment. And these changes can help you avoid weight-related health problems.
• You may face some challenges and setbacks, but your doctor can help you learn new ways to manage them so you can reach and maintain a weight that's healthy for you.

How can you stay on your plan for change?

Be ready. Plan to start during a time when you don't have too many events like holidays, social events, and high-stress periods. It may be harder to stay with your plan during these times.

Decide on your first few steps. A good strategy is to make small changes focused on improving your health. For example, you might have a piece of fruit instead of a less healthy snack, plan a 10-minute daily walk, or add more vegetables to a meal.

Find your support people. Connect with people who understand how important these changes are to you. Ask caring family members or friends to help you stay with your plan. If there are people who might make it harder to stick to your plan, think about how you can handle that.

Try tracking. Keeping track of your food, activity, and weight can help you succeed with your plan. There are lots of free apps that make tracking easy. Or you can simply write down things like:

• What and how much you ate and how many calories it had.
• Details about where you ate, who was with you, and how you felt before and after eating.
• What you did to be active and how long you were active.

Learn from tracking. Tracking can help you see your progress, remind you of your successes, and avoid setbacks. As you track, look for eating patterns that you may want to change and note your successes. Notice things like:

• When you eat and whether you skip meals.
• How often you eat out.
• How many fruits and vegetables you eat.
• When you eat beyond feeling full.
• When and why you eat for reasons other than being hungry.

These patterns can help you find ways to make small changes to achieve your weight goals.

If you stray from your plan, don't be hard on yourself. Think about what happened and ways to avoid doing the same thing in the future.

Can you take medicines or have surgery to lose weight?

Weight-loss medicine or surgery may be helpful for people who have a BMI in a certain range or who have not been able to lose weight with diet and exercise.

• Weight-loss medicine may be an option if you have obesity or if you are overweight and have a health problem related to your weight. These medicines work by making you feel less hungry, making you feel full more quickly, or changing how you digest fat.
• Weight-loss (bariatic) surgery may be an option if you have obesity and have not been able to lose a meaningful amount of weight and keep it off. It may also be offered if you have obesity and have weight-related health problems that have not improved with other options. Weight-loss surgery makes the stomach area smaller so it fills up with less food. This surgery is safe and effective for many people.

Your doctor can help you understand your options so you can decide what's right for you. With any treatment you choose, healthy eating and regular exercise can help you make lasting changes. Your doctor may also suggest counseling or other types of support to learn new ways to manage your feelings.