At Kwikfit, we want you to take your health seriously. We have compiled research from studies done around the globe on obesity and its negative consequences on the health of people around the world, not just in North America; however, overweight and obesity is a very serious concern here and we are here to help.

“What factors influence body weight, and in particular overweight and obesity?  At the most fundamental level, overweight and obesity result from an imbalance between caloric intake and usage.  In support of this perspective, health and nutrition experts cite increasingly sedentary lifestyles resulting from urban planning and technological changes in the way we work; they also point to increasing portion sizes and the poor availability of nutritional food choices in schools and workplaces.  However, ‘there is no consensus as to whether the current obesity epidemic in North America is primarily the result of high levels of physical inactivity or high dietary intake of energy-dense foods, and it is likely that both dietary intake and physical inactivity have played a role in the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity.’ ” (1)

The World Health Organization (WHO), which refers to the escalating global epidemic of obesity as “globesity,” estimates that there are more than 1 billion overweight adults globally, of whom at least 300 million are obese.  Recognizing that overweight and obesity can have tremendous negative health implications, a group of health and nutrition experts assembled by the WHO in 1997 concluded that:

Without societal changes, a substantial and steadily rising proportion of adults will succumb to the medical complications of obesity; indeed, the medical burden of obesity already threatens to overwhelm health services.  The spectrum of problems seen in both developing and developed countries is having so negative an impact that obesity should be regarded as today’s principal neglected public health problem.” (2)

Numerous scientific studies have linked overweight and obesity with increased risk for a broad range of illnesses, including:  Type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, gallbladder disease, obstructive sleep apnea and respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease (e.g., coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke), hypertension, osteoarthritis, some types of cancer (e.g., breast, endometrial, colon, prostate and kidney), psychosocial problems, functional limitations and impaired fertility.(3)

A recent study demonstrated that obese individuals spend approximately 36 percent more than the general population on health services and 77 percent more on medications.²⁰ Furthermore, the study found that the effects of obesity on health spending were significantly larger than effects of current or past smoking. US Department of Health and Human Services

For a definitive look at Obesity and Overweight information from the World Health Organization, please refer to the following link:

Obesity and Overweight - WHO

(1) Peter T. Katzmarzyk and Ian Janssen, “The Economic Costs Associated With Physical Inactivity and Obesity in Canada:  An Update,” Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2004, p. 104.

(2) Obesity:  Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic, Report of a WHO Consultation on Obesity, 3-5 June 1997, Executive Summary, p. 2.

(3)   Health Canada, Canadian Guidelines for Body Weight Classification in Adults, Ottawa, 2003, Table 1, p. 7.  Also see: F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, “The Obesity Epidemic:  Pathophysiology and Consequences of Obesity,” Obesity Research, Vol. 10, Supp. 2, December 2002, pp. 97S-104S.