What is obesity? According to the definition of obesity in the United States of America Centers for disease control and prevention, obesity and overweight are described as : Both labels for ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems(United States of America Center of disease control and prevention, definition "Obesity"). Moreover, definitions of obesity of adults
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and teens are different. As for adults, obesity ranges are determined by a number calculated with weught and height which is called the "Body mass index" (BMI) (United States of America Center fot disease control and prevention). BMI can show how fat or obese the person is. For example, if an adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered as overweight and has a BMI over 30 is considered as obese. As a healthy adult, their BMI will be between 18.5 and 24.9. As for teens and children, the method of measuring BMI is different. The BMI of a child need to be compared with other children at that age-range so that they can account the differencees in body fat.
The number of obese adults in the United States has been increasing in the recent
Cited: Currie, Janet; DellaVigna, Stefano; Moretti, Enrico; Pathania, Vikram. 2009. The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity and Weight Gain, NBER Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research. "Data and statistics, Obesity rates among all children in the United States". " United States of America Center of disease control and prevention" "Defining Overweight and Obesity", " United States of America Center of disease control and prevention, definition "Obesity" "Definition of Arthritis", "PubMed Health"