Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. The balance between calories-in and calories-out differs with each person. Factors that might affect your weight include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods, and not being physically active.
Being obese increases your risks of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and some cancers. If you are obese, losing even 5 to 10 per cent of your weight can delay or prevent some of these diseases.
In 1950, the number of hungry individuals on Earth was estimated to be around 700 million. At the time, obesity affected approximately 100 million people around the globe, primarily in rich countries. This statistics has changed dramatically over the past six decades.
Television, radio and print advertisings bombard us with enticements to eat food that is high in calories, including empty calories, fat, sugar and salt. Our bodies were not designed to remain sedentary, but we now spend much of our time sitting in front of some type of screen rather than engaging in vigorous outdoor activities; and when we go shopping, we keep riding around until we find a parking spot that is within feet of the entrance. We do not want to walk even a hundred yards!
One person dies every five minutes because of the food he eats, and the resulting health conditions. Most of these deaths are caused in part or completely by eating disorders and obesity.
Obesity in urban Bangladesh is a huge problem and is growing fast. The good news is that it is entirely preventable and reversible with proper education, diet and exercise. All of these things can be achieved simply by educating our children on the right things to eat and boycotting fast food.
Health leaders should be called upon to set up an emergency taskforce to tackle childhood and adult obesity in Bangladesh. They need an action group, made up of doctors, nurses, dieticians, and others, to be set up urgently. With it, health leaders would call for better coordination in obesity treatment services so that all children can be encouraged to eat healthily from a young age.
They must call for a raft of other measures, including: improved investment in IT programmes for weight management, more training in obesity for general people and health professionals, outreach projects to educate families about the dangers of obesity. As parents and health professionals, we need to take responsibility and ensure that every child has a healthy and varied diet and regular exercise.
We need a unified approach to manage obesity. We need action now. We've got to start by properly monitoring children's weight from birth, and then proceed with checking it regularly as they grow.
Lately, the country has watched the launch of an obesity screening test, which is known as 'Body composition analysis test'. Labaid Hospital conducts this test for weight management. The purpose of this body composition analysis test is to provide an in-depth look at our current state of health.
Body fat percentage is a leading indicator of fitness level and disease risk. This gives us an insight regarding one's health and is used as a guide to determining the ideal weight and monitoring progress in weight control and/or exercise programmes. With these detailed information, the device can develop a more personalised exercise and a nutrition programme for obese and underweight persons.
It has now become a fad to spend money to be 'healthy'. An entire generation is being destroyed by the diet of junk foods and sugary drinks. Tackling obesity should be one of our major health-related priorities; but there is no magic bullet to solve the problem. Everyone has a major role to play.
The chief message is that obesity is established quite early in life, and that it basically gets developed through adolescence to adulthood. A consistent national approach to treating obesity is urgently needed.
The writer is nutritionist, BCA Department, Labaid
Hospital, Dhaka.
fahmida@labaidgroup.com
Coping with obesity, pragmatically
Fahmida Hashem | Published: September 21, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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