Tulane Doctors ~ Heart & Vascular Institute ~ Obesity

Obesity is an excess accumulation of body fat.  Obeisity can lead to many diseases and health problems including reduced life expectancy, heart disease,  type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.

Symptoms
Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement which compares weight and height, defines people as overweight (pre-obese) when their BMI is between 25 and 30 , and obese when it is greater than 30. Though BMI is a helpful tool, it is not always a perfect indicator of health risks.

Causes
Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of too many calories, a lack of physical activity, and a genetic susceptibility (although only a few cases are actually caused primarily by genes,) endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness.