Obesity
Obesity, or overfatness, is gender specific. For men, obesity is defined as body fat equal to or greater than 25% of the total weight of the body, and for women, it is equal to or greater than 32% of the total body weight. These values are arbitrary because an optimal definition of obesity is unknown. The point at which fat storage actually increases health risks has not been determined. Methods of assessing the amount of body fat are indirect, and each contains a degree of measurement error.
Body fat values of 26% to 31% for women and 19% to 24% for men probably negatively affect health.
Overweight
Overweight refers to excessive weight for height without regard for body composition. Because the term overweight makes no allowances for body composition, it is a poor criterion for deciding desirability of weight loss. For example, well-muscled individuals may be overweight but lean in regard to body fat. By American social standards, this is healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and desirable. Other individuals may be well within the norms for total body weight but over fat; that is they carry a large proportion of their body weight in the form of fat rather than lean tissue. This is unhealthy and unattractive according to American social standards.
Tags:affect health, Body Composition, body fat, body weight, definition of obesity, health risks, lean tissue overweight