Oprah’s special guest today was the style channels Ruby whose on her own personal battle to lose weight.  She also  featured a story today about Renee Williams, 29 and mother of two was considered to be one of the largest women in the world and  in 2007 she became the largest person to ever survive gastric bypass surgery.  The surgery gave her family great hope after watching her lay  helplessly trapped in her own body.  Twelve days after the surgery her hopeful fate  turned grim when Williams died.  Her dream to just be able to hug her children would never become a reality.

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in metres). A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight.

Facts about overweight and obesity

• approximately 1.6 billion adults (age 15+) were overweight;
• at least 400 million adults were obese.

WHO further projects that by 2015, approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.

At least 20 million children under the age of 5 years are overweight globally in 2005.

Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings.

What causes obesity and overweight?

The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed on one hand, and calories expended on the other hand. Global increases in overweight and obesity are attributable to a number of factors including:

• a global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients; and
• a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

What are common health consequences of overweight and obesity?

Overweight and obesity lead to serious health consequences. Risk increases progressively as BMI increases. Raised body mass index is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as:

• Cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke) – already the world’s number one cause of death, killing 17 million people each year.
• Diabetes – which has rapidly become a global epidemic. WHO projects that diabetes deaths will increase by more than 50% worldwide in the next 10 years.
• Musculoskeletal disorders – especially osteoarthritis.
• Some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon).

Childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of premature death and disability in adulthood.

Many low- and middle-income countries are now facing a “double burden” of disease:

• While they continue to deal with the problems of infectious disease and under-nutrition, at the same time they are experiencing a rapid upsurge in chronic disease risk factors such as obesity and overweight, particularly in urban settings.
• It is not uncommon to find under-nutrition and obesity existing side-by-side within the same country, the same community and even within the same household.
• This double burden is caused by inadequate pre-natal, infant and young child nutrition followed by exposure to high-fat, energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods and lack of physical activity.

related articles:

• Amazing Story Girl Weighs 420lbs Inspiring

• World’s Smallest Man (VIDEO)

Tags: gastric bypass, largest woman weighed, largest women, morbid obesity, obesity, Oprah, oprah weight, renee williams, Ruby, ruby on oprah, style channel ruby

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