Overweight can be defined as excess storage of body fat in an individual. In adult men with a "normal" weight, the percentage of body fat is about 15-20%. In women this percentage is higher, about 25-30%. In spite of the fact that differences in weight between individuals are only partly due to variation in body fat, indices based on relative weight (such as body mass index (EM!), defined as weight (kg) divided by the square of height (m'» are most often used to measure the degree of overweigh!. It has been shown that there is a very good correlation between BMI and the percentage of body fat in large populations I, and therefore the use of BMI to measure the degree of overweight in popUlations is justified. Overweight is generally defined as BMI equal to or higher than 25 kg/m', and obesity as BMI equal to or higher than 30 kg/m'. These cut-off points have been recently incorporated in the WHO Expert Committee recommendation for the classification of overweight '. The WHO report names the first as grade I overweight and the laller as grade 2 overweight, but these terms have not spread to a wider use. In the following, the term overweight will be used to refer both to overweight and obesity when not referring to obesity alone.

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Prof.dr. M. Schroll Prof.dr. S.W.J. Lamberts Prof.dr. J.P. Mackenbach Dr. J.C. Seidell (Copromotor)
J. Tuomilehto , A. Hofman (Albert)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
hdl.handle.net/1765/20062
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Molarius, A. (1999, November 24). Determinants of relative weight and body fat distribution in an international perspective. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/20062