What Is the Difference Between Being Overweight and Obese?

How To Define Overweight And Obesity

In simple terms, being overweight is a situation when a person has excessive weight, more specifically, excessive body fat, which can be harmful to health and lead to an array of health conditions including but not limited to stroke and diabetes. Obesity is an extreme situation of being overweight when the body fat is just too high and the health risks associated with it are also increased.

How To Measure Overweight And Obesity

To tell whether you are overweight or obese, a doctor needs to measure your body fat. One of the widest-used tools for measuring weight status is Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is a weight-for-height measure used to classify the weight status of people.

You can check if you are overweight or obese using BMI in 2 easy steps:

1. To identify your Body Mass Index, enter your weight and height on our BMI calculator.
2. Look at the following chart to see if your BMI falls within the range of underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obesity. Obesity is divided into several classes based on the level of body fat. If you fall within the range of obesity, look at the following chart to see the extent to which you are obese.

However, BMI is just a rough guide, please visit the doctor for more accurate results.

Beyond BMI: Why Measuring Obesity Is More Sophisticated Than You Think

Although these calculations might give you an approximation of your weight condition and be useful in certain circumstances, BMI neither covers all aspects of your condition nor gives accurate results on the mass of your body fat. After all, BMI is just a statistical measure, not a biological one. BMI measures weight for height ratio and is correlated with more direct measures of body fat, it does not measure body fat directly.

There are factors that should be taken into account when measuring body fat such as age, the phenotype of the body, and many others. Each body is different and there are a variety of body phenotypes that the measure of BMI does not take into account. For example, It is hard to identify risks associated with your weight just by BMI because increased BMI may be due to many factors such as increased Lean Body Mass (LBM) which is:

Lean Body Mass (LBM) = Total Body Weight – Fat Mass.

Therefore, sometimes even if your BMI says that you are in a healthy weight range, it is better to recheck with alternative methods to approximate your body fat and thus health risks associated with it. Waist-to-Hip Ratio is one of the alternatives to BMI which will be discussed in a moment.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio As An Alternative To BMI

As its name suggests, Waist-to-Hip Ratio is the relation of your waist measurement to your hip measurement. This type of evaluation focuses specifically on abdominal obesity, a condition when too much fat is stored around your waist. The higher the ratio of your waist to your hip, the higher amount of fat stored around your waist and thus the higher risks of heart diseases, diabetes, and other weight-related conditions.

The fat around your waist surrounds the liver and other internal organs and is called visceral fat. This visceral fat can emit certain hormones and chemicals that might cause inflammation in your body which leads to increased levels of cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood glucose.

To Precisely Determine Your Weight Status Consult With Innova Weight Loss Solutions

Each body is unique and there are many nuances. Though the aforementioned measurements can be a good start, to determine your weight status and health risks posed by it more accurately, visit professionals at Innova Weight Loss Solutions to get individualized measurements of your body fat.

At Innova Weight Loss Solutions we use the state-of-art Professional Body Composition Analyzer that measures body fat with a high accuracy rate and looks beyond your weight. Our board-certified gastroenterologists will be happy to help you in identifying your weight condition and guide you in your journey to building a healthier and happier life.

Important to note, a recent report on obesity found that healthcare workers often assume that people can treat obesity just by altering their lifestyle, though in 2013 the American Medical Association adopted a policy resolution that recognizes obesity as a chronic disease that requires treatment and prevention interventions. The report highlighted the importance of educating medical professionals on the latest science and most effective treatments for obesity including nutrition counseling from professionals like registered dieticians, anti-obesity medication, and bariatric surgery. It was also recommended that health insurers cover evidence-based comprehensive weight management programs and services.

Medical professionals at Innova Weight Loss Solutions follow the latest updates and use modern effective technologies to help fight the condition of being overweight and prevent obesity.