Overweight and Obesity
So let's take a step back here and let's define what I mean by overweight and obesity. These are both classifications that represent a weight that exceeds the threshold of a health criterion in a relationship to morbidity and mortality. In other words, these are weights that are associated with increased risk of disease or death.
And overweight is a body weight that's greater than or equal to ten percent over the ideal weight for a specific height. So, for someone that's a particular height, we can predict their ideal weight. Anything that's ten percent over that would be considered "overweight."
Obesity, again, is based on an ideal weight for a specified height, but we're talking about someone who is greater than or equal to 30 percent over that ideal weight.
It's important to note here that these are not measures of body composition or whether your body is made up of fat or lean tissue, but just a ratio of weight to height, and they don't take into account the type of tissue, only your overall weight.