No country for fit people – every other urban Indian is obese!

Prachi Gupta, CEO of Fitho said, ‘Being overweight puts you at higher risk for developing a number of health problems including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood cholesterol, stroke and some kinds of cancer. Obesity puts you at a much higher risk of these lifestyle diseases.’ The survey also found that people with a higher BMI were far likelier to suffer from high blood pressure and heart disease. The people who were overweight also reported higher incidents of knee or back pain.

Do they plan to lose weight?

The study also found that 70% people were into some kind of physical activity to lose weight were men. 80% gym goers were also likely to be men and walking was the most common weight loss activity. Interestingly, the average age of people who people who’re currently dieting and exercising have an average age of 39 and a BMI of 28. This suggests that people only start making more healthy choices when they start seeing the consequences of living an unhealthy one.

Health.India.Com View – No hasty generalisations 

Obesity is one of the biggest public health challenges and is considered by some to be a global pandemic. However, it’s impossible to judge an entire nation’s health based on such a small sample size. There’s also some controversy about using BMI as the sole indicator of ill-health. Many nutritionists and dieticians have spoken out against using BMI because a person’s weight could be due to a variety of reasons including bone weight and muscle weight. Nowadays, the body fat percentage is considered a more accurate tool to analyse good health. 

Also, surveys conducted by companies have to be taken with a pinch of salt. For example, a survey conducted by a company that was launching a trimmer found that women preferred men with stylised facial hair and trimmed body hair, while an earlier survey by a razor company found that women preferred clean shaven men! 

Note: The survey was conducted by Fitho covering newspaper readers in India. There were 4,100 participants with 46% men and 54% women. The BMI demarcation of overweight (BMI>23), obese (BMI>25) and extremely obese (BMI>30) is according to the Indian Health Ministry in 2012. 

Infogram source: Fitho.

You may also like to read:

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• Get fit at your workplace with these expert recommended exercises and tips
• Why is high intensity interval training better (HIIT) for weight loss?
• 4 sexy and unusual ways to lose weight    

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