Top 5 : Best Apps for Losing Weight
20 July 2017
Are you overweight or obese? BMI calculations
20 July 2017
All articles in this blog are written in collaboration with and under the supervision of the health professionals at our gastroenterology center.
Overweight and obesity are chronic diseases that are due to an excess of fat mass. In full expansion this last half century, obesity is according to the WHO: the first non-infectious epidemic in history! Discover in this article the alarming figures of this disease.
What is obesity?
Obesity is the consequence of an excessive accumulation of fat. A high degree of overweight occurs and this leads to a number of diseases that are dangerous to health.
Statistics: some numbers about overweight
The statistics provided in this article come from the WHO (World Health Organization), INSERM (Institut National de la Recherche Médicale) and the Ministry of Health.
Overweight is a major health problem of the last decades. Discover the alarming data of this first non-infectious epidemic in history.
Overweight in Belgium
The statistics for our country are slightly above the European figures. In fact, 59% of the Belgian population is overweight, 23% of which is obese.
As for the youngest children, aged less than 5 years, 5% of them are overweight. On the other hand, as the age group increases (children aged 5 to 9), the figures increase in a worrying way: they rise to 26% overweight, including 9% obese. Teenagers are 23% overweight and 7% obese.
Overweight in France
In France, 8 million people suffer from obesity. Among these 8 million people, 500,000 are in severe obesity. This represents 17% of adults.
Among children and adolescents, 17% are overweight; 4% are obese.
These figures are current as they were issued on May 23, 2022.
In Europe
In Europe, more than half of the population is overweight. 30% of this population is obese.
This disease is responsible for 10 to 13% of deaths.
Overweight and obesity in the world
In 2016, more than 2 billion adults were overweight, including 650 million obese individuals. This represents nearly 40% overweight and almost 15% obese.
In 2019, 38.2 million children under the age of 5 are overweight or obese worldwide.
Overweight and obesity have always been wrongly considered as diseases of “rich countries”. In fact, it turns out that 70% of the 2 billion overweight people live in developing countries.
In America
The statistics concerning overweight and obesity on the American continent are even more alarming. Indeed, more than 70% of Americans are overweight. Of which 30% are obese.
It is even more concerning that these numbers are from 2014. It is clear that this disease has only grown since then and the current numbers are much higher.
In Africa
The African continent has seen an increase of more than 24% in this disease among children since 2000. We can therefore see that overweight is also rampant in developing countries.
Evolution of overweight and obesity
Between 1975 and 2020 the proportion of overweight cases has almost tripled in the world.
The latest forecasts indicate that by 2030, half of the population will suffer from obesity, given the rapid progression of this disease throughout the world.
Is it possible to stop this obesity epidemic?
Numerous measures will be put in place at the international level :
- fiscal interventions to reduce access to, or trade restriction of, unhealthy foods
- reinforcing the education of the population on good practices to adopt
- encouraging the consumption of healthy foods
At our level, several treatments are available to treat obesity and lose weight:
- dietetics : food rebalancing
- sports: practice of a physical activity
- non-surgical: placement of the gastric balloon
- surgical: bariatric surgery (by-pass, sleeve, etc.) and cosmetic surgery
If you want to know more about obesity, discover our article which deals with overweight in its entirety: from the causes, to the treatments and the consequences.
What you should remember about these obesity statistics
Overweight and obesity are the evils of the century! Although the consequences are disastrous on health, their expansion is not about to stop.
Did you like this article? What do you think about the strong progression of obesity? Do you think we will be able to stabilize and then reverse the situation in the coming decades? We are interested in your opinion!
If you are overweight or obese and are looking for solutions, our team at the welliecare center in Brussels can be reached by email via the form on the website.
