!

Health topics

Obesity

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat

accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of
obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms)
divided by the square of his or her height (in metres). A person with a BMI
of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to
or more than 25 is considered overweight.

Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic
diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Once
considered a problem only in high income countries, overweight and
obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income
countries, particularly in urban settings.

Highlight
Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity
Tasked with producing a report specifying which approaches and which
combinations of interventions are likely to be most effective in different
contexts around the world

General information Technical information

Fact sheet on obesity and Childhood overweight and obesity

overweight
Recommendations for healthy diets
The WHO Child Growth Standards
Controlling the global obesity
Multimedia epidemic

10 facts about obesity

Publications

Feature Marketing of foods and non-

alcoholic beverages to children
Malri's story: facing
obesity Childhood obesity: priority action

Publications on obesity and

nutrition
Publications on diet and physical
 activity
WHO programmes and activities

Global Strategy on Diet, Physical

Activity and Health Statistics
Department of Nutrition for Health
and Development Data and analysis on overweight
and obesity
Global Database on Body Mass
Index
Obesity in WHO Regions

Region of the Americas

Eastern Mediterranean Region Related topics
European Region Cardiovascular diseases
Western Pacific Region Child health
South-East Asia Region Chronic diseases
Diet and physical activity
Health promotion
Nutrition topics
Physical activity

What we do "
Regions "
About us "
What we do "
Regions "
About us "

Subscribe to our newsletter

Privacy Legal Notice

© 2019 WHO