Obesity should be defined by a person's health - not just their weight, says a new Canadian clinical guideline.
It also advises doctors to go beyond simply recommending diet and exercise.
Instead, they should focus on the root causes of weight gain and take a holistic approach to health.
The guideline, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Tuesday, specifically admonished weight-related stigma against patients in the health system.
"The dominant cultural narrative regarding obesity fuels assumptions about personal irresponsibility and lack of willpower and casts blame and shame upon people living with obesity," the guideline, which is intended to be used by primary care physicians in diagnosing and treating obesity in their daily practice, states.
Ximena Ramos-Salas, the director of research and policy at Obesity Canada and one of the guideline's authors, said research shows many doctors discriminate against obese patients, and that can lead to worse health outcomes irrespective of their weight.
"Weight bias is not just about believing the wrong thing about obesity," she told the BBC. "Weight bias actually has an effect on the behavior of healthcare practitioners."
5 August, BBC
I agree with M.A. Alam to some extent. Why is obesity clinically important? Obesity is vulnerable to get various other NCSs in future. But, there should be some standard criteria to define obesity. So, BMI is a good messurment to define it. When a person is obese, he or she might have some physical as well as psychological uneasiness.
Obesity cam be determined by the use of BMI criteria.. taking weight as well as height of the person in consideration. Considering weight only is not a good idea
Focusing on the root causes of weight gain and a holistic approach to health should be more helpful to improve the condition dear Samarakoon Mudiyanselage Samantha Samarakoon
Thanks dear Ruqia Quansar and I do agree about the holistic approach to solve the problem.
Think so dear Suzan S. Ibraheim and obesity itself is a disease and can be the root cause of other diseases too.
Thanks dear Patricia Lounsbury and the issue is not measurement actually, it tries to share about the importance of holistic approach to prevent and control of obesity.
Identify the etiology of obesity. Rule out secondary or monogenic etiology of obesity. Be compassionate to motivate the obese patient to have “healthy lifestyle” and reduce adiposity and waistline. Treat co-morbidities and prevent complications.
Thanks dear Sioksoan Chan Cua and we need to think about holistic approach to control the crisis.
Obesity is often a good indicator of someone's health and lifestyle. Let us not fool ourselves with the politically correct trends that excessive weight is not a problem. Someone who is obese often does little to no exercise and consumes excessive amounts of calories. Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but there is no doubt in the research that obesity is a risk factor for a multitude of conditions.
Yes health person has well weight and height because indication of health person basis on term which is known as body mass index(BMI). it equal body weight(kg)/ (Height(m))2 . There are four classes
1. Under weight : less than
2. Norma weight : 1 -24.5
3. Obese : 25 - 30
4. Overweight: more than 30
note that obese is ratio between Kg: (h in meter)2
Sorry sir Murwan khalid Sabahelkhier , actually I am confused about classification. What do you mean by less than and then 1- 24.5?
Dory , I want to mention range of normal weight which is range from 18 (BMI) to 24.5 (BMI)
It range of BMI tool for classification health and non health
Hello, Muhammad , for long period lifestyle modification to maintain health basis on gender, age, weight, waist and height. There are different tools in addition BMI for checking the health of person from time to other included: waist:height, waist:hip, waist circumference in addition to BMI.
Thanks for sharing dear Murwan khalid Sabahelkhier and the question was not actually only measurement related rather it was focusing on holistic approach.
Health person basis on age, gender and not in measurement. I mentioned measurement differential between health and non health. After measure , it give good picture about the healthy( then if good no programmer required, if not he is required programmer to corrected any problems health.
In as much as I agree that the importance of holistic approaches cannot be overestimated, an individual with obesity (judging by measurements) and other normal health indications/conditions/measurements should still be encouraged to keep up with healthy dietary and lifestyle habits if they are already engaging in them because of the high risk of obesity with other diseases
Agree. We need to understand that there are different types of fats contributing to obesity, some is protective, the others are disease-causing, and BMI is not a good measure for these fats. Subcutaneous fats are normally harmless and may even protect against some diseases, and this fats are the main contributor of one's BMI. Visceral fat is fat that surrounds the organs, small amount of visceral fats are protective to the organ. Though it is not visible from the outside, excessive visceral fats are associated with numerous diseases. Ectopic fat is the storage of triglycerides in tissues other than adipose tissue, that are supposed to contain only small amounts of fat, such as the liver, skeletal muscle, heart, and pancreas. These fats can interfere with cellular functions and hence organ function and is associated with insulin resistance in type-2 diabetes. It is stored in relatively high amounts around the organs of the abdominal cavity, but is not to be confused with visceral fat. The most dangerous fats are the ectopic fats, but they are not proportionally related to one's overweight or obesity (BMI). The following BMJ paper is worth to read:
Article Why there's no point telling me to lose weight
https://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.g6845