Obesity is a disease that develops when there's an excess amount of body fat that affects your health and can increase your risk of long-term medical conditions such as:

Obesity is a progressive disease, which means that it requires long-term management. With support and guidance, obesity is manageable. 

To find out if you're living with obesity and to get a formal obesity diagnosis, it's important to talk to your healthcare professional. One simple way to screen for obesity is to calculate your body mass index (BMI).

BMI classifies underweight, overweight and obesity in adults based on their height and weight. Here you can see the BMI classifications

Cut-offs are different for people of South-, Southeast- or East Asian descent.

Although BMI has traditionally been used to measure excess weight, and is used in the current definitions of obesity, the Commission highlighted one of its major weaknesses—BMI does not reflect body fat distribution. 

As BMI does not differentiate between fat mass & lean mass, some people can have a normal or borderline overweight BMI score, despite living with excess body fat. In some cases, this could lead to a missed diagnosis of obesity and cause their health risk to go unnoticed.

The same problem can also be seen at the opposite end of the scale—some people living with high muscle mass but healthy levels of body fat, such as athletes, tend to have a higher BMI score. In some cases, this can lead them to be incorrectly classified as living with obesity.

This goes to show that although BMI is a valuable screening tool, indication of excess body fat, using tools such as Waist-to-Height Ratio, Waist Circumference, and Waist-to-Hip Ratio can contribute to a better identification and diagnosis of obesity. To find out your Waist-to-Height Ratio, use our calculator provided below.

The symptoms of obesity go beyond excess body fat. If you're living with obesity, you may experience a variety of common symptoms. These can include:

• Difficulty doing physical activities like climbing stairs
• Breathlessness
• Increased sweating
• Snoring
• Feeling tired regularly
• Joint pain
• Back pain
• Low confidence and self-esteem
• Feeling isolated
• Depression, anxiety and mood disorders

If these symptoms sound familiar, it may be a good idea to talk to your healthcare professional. Understanding obesity and available treatments can help manage your weight.