Q. What does grossly overweight mean in medical terms? What is the BMI limit?
Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.
Grossly overweight, also known as obesity, is a medical term used to refer to individuals with excessive accumulation of body fat. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), being obese is having an excess of body fat which is equal or greater than 30% in men and 40% in women. This percentage can be determined by calculating the Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI uses a simple formula that takes into account your weight relative to your height and determines whether you are overweight or not.
The cutoff point for determining obesity specifically depends on each person's age, gender, and race/ethnicity; however, generally speaking anything over 30 kg/m?2; indicates obesity. To break this down further: if you're under 18 years old, a BMI between 25-30kg/ m?2; signifies overweight while higher than this stands for being obese; if you're above 18 years old then anything over 30 kg /m?2; suggests the individual has reached levels of morbid obesity.
Obesity does more than just affect physical appearance - it can have various negative impacts on overall health too. It increases risks of heart disease and stroke as well as other chronic conditions such as arthritis metabolic syndrome (which often goes hand-in-hand with diabetes) and certain types of cancer (endometrial ovarian prostate among others). Ultimately though it’s important to remember only your doctor can accurately diagnose whether or not you are at risk so seek professional help if necessary!
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