Obesity and the Psychological Effects in Adults
INTRODUCTION
Obesity is a growing epidemic and effects both physical and psychological health. With many of these factors attributed to my own personal life, I chose this topic to further my knowledge in the efforts being made to treat the psychological side of obesity and overweight individuals. Through my own experiences, I have found that depending on your own self-esteem and body image perception, you can overcome society stigma 's related to being obese and overweight and conquer all that you may desire. Obesity in America has reached enormous proportions with an estimated 61% (1 p. 1581) of adults being either overweight or obese. Obesity is calculated according to the Body Mass Index. (4 p. 67, 68) The Body Mass Index is calculated with the individual 's height and weight. BMI scores range from 12 (underweight) to 49 (obese to morbidly obese) with the optimal scores, at any age, being 19-25. (1 p.1582)
With society stressors ever prevalent, it is thought that an overweight individual would have added distress in daily life. It is prevalent in almost every encounter that overweight and obesity is an ever growing problem. There are full aisles in stores designated to diet foods, entire clothing stores designated for the overweight/plus size population and even multi-million dollar corporations aimed at this population i.e.: Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Curves, etc. With the main focus of these companies on the outward image of the individual, what is being done to address the psychological issues of this population? The answer is not much at all.
Through all of my research on obesity among the adult population I have not come across one company or area of focus on the psychological health of the individual, but only the health benefits for losing weight. Weight issues have been linked to many health problems in the recent years, some of which being hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke and both types of diabetes. Obesity has
Obesity is a growing epidemic and effects both physical and psychological health. With many of these factors attributed to my own personal life, I chose this topic to further my knowledge in the efforts being made to treat the psychological side of obesity and overweight individuals. Through my own experiences, I have found that depending on your own self-esteem and body image perception, you can overcome society stigma 's related to being obese and overweight and conquer all that you may desire. Obesity in America has reached enormous proportions with an estimated 61% (1 p. 1581) of adults being either overweight or obese. Obesity is calculated according to the Body Mass Index. (4 p. 67, 68) The Body Mass Index is calculated with the individual 's height and weight. BMI scores range from 12 (underweight) to 49 (obese to morbidly obese) with the optimal scores, at any age, being 19-25. (1 p.1582)
With society stressors ever prevalent, it is thought that an overweight individual would have added distress in daily life. It is prevalent in almost every encounter that overweight and obesity is an ever growing problem. There are full aisles in stores designated to diet foods, entire clothing stores designated for the overweight/plus size population and even multi-million dollar corporations aimed at this population i.e.: Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Curves, etc. With the main focus of these companies on the outward image of the individual, what is being done to address the psychological issues of this population? The answer is not much at all.
Through all of my research on obesity among the adult population I have not come across one company or area of focus on the psychological health of the individual, but only the health benefits for losing weight. Weight issues have been linked to many health problems in the recent years, some of which being hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke and both types of diabetes. Obesity has
References: #1: X Guo, BA Warden, S Paeretakul and GA Bray (2004), European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 58, Issue 12, p. 1580-1586. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 02/20/2006 #2: Rogge, Greenwald, Golden (2004), Advances in Nursing Science, Vol. 27, No. 4, p. 301-315. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 02/20/2006 #3: Brennan (2003), Australian Journal of Psychology, Supplement 2003, p. 3. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 2/22/2006 #4: Bee, Bjorkland (2004) The Journey of Adulthood, 5th Edition