Many people think obesity means that a person is overweight, but that's not exactly true. An overweight person has a surplus amount of weight that includes muscle, bone, fat and water. An obese person has a surplus of body fat. Body Mass Index (BMI) is commonly used to determine if a person is obese or not. A person with a BMI over 30 is considered to be obese, and a BMI over 40 is considered to be severely obese.
Factors such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, genetics and certain medical disorders cause obesity, but it can be conquered.
Eating Disorder
Obesity itself is not an eating disorder, but people who are obese or who fear becoming obese may develop one. There are three type of eating disorder:-
Binge eating - binge eaters eat uncontrollably and quickly eating an unusually large amount of food at one sitting. They eat mostly sugar and fat. As a result, they may lack certain vitamins and nutrients.
Bulimia nervosa - bulimics binge eat, usually in secret, then purge to get rid of the calories just eaten. They may also exercise intensely for long periods of time to burn off the extra calories, or they may go for long periods of time without eating.
Anorexia nervosa - anorexics literally starve themselves due to an intense fear of being fat. Their bodies are severely depleted of nutrients. As a result, they develop muscular atrophy, dehydration, low blood pressure and organ damage to name a few. Because anorexia is so life threatening, the first stage of treatment is getting body weight back to normal. Treatments for eating disorder include therapy and medications.
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