Overweight vs Obese

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Both Overweight and Obesity imply a condition of excess weight of a person.

Being overweight means having more body weight than is considered normal or healthy for one’s age or build. On the other hand, obesity is the condition of being obese, i.e., excess amount of body fat with a BMI of over 30. While an overweight person will carry excess weight, he may or may not have excess accumulation of fat.

Comparison chart

Obesity versus Overweight comparison chart
	Obesity	Overweight
What is it?	A disease marked by excessive generalized deposition and storage of fat, with a BMI (Body mass index) of over 30.	A condition where the person weighs more than what is considered normal for that height, age and sex.
BMI range	A person is considered obese when BMI is over 30.	A person is considered overweight when their BMI is between 25 and 29.9.
Risk factors	Coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension	Depression, high blood pressure.
Remedies / Treatment	Reduce calories, Exercise and in extreme cases surgery	Exercise, reduced intake of food.
Causes	More intake, eating fast foods, stress, depression, hormonal imbalance, sedentary lifestyle	More intake of food than is expended by the body, genetics
Occurrence	More than 300 million people are obese across the world	Around 1 billion people are estimated to be overweight across the globe.
Geographically	More prominent and on the increase in North America, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Australasia and China	Globally
In children	Around 5% of the 22 million overweight children under five are clinically obese.	22 million children under five are overweight

What is Obesity?

The medical definition of obesity in an adult is as follows:

Obesity is a condition where an individual accumulates excessive fat in the body, indicated by a body mass index of 30 or greater.

Obesity is excess fat compared to lean body mass, or a body weight that is 30 percent over the ideal weight for a specific height. A person is obese when the amount of adipose tissue is sufficiently high. Obesity is a chronic disorder, caused by complex variety of factors.

What is BMI?

The range that is considered "normal" or healthy weight depends upon a person's height. It is natural for taller people to weigh more. BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a number that is calculated based on both the height and weight to determine if the weight is high or low compared with what you would expect for that height. BMI indicator of body fatness, and is used as a screening tool for weight issues.

How to Calculate BMI

$B M I = W / (H 2)$ where W is the person's weight (in kilograms, not pounds) and H is the person's height (in meters). In other words, BMI is a person's weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of height (in meters).

If weight is in pounds and height is in inches, then BMI is calculated using a similar formula, only multiplying by 703. i.e., $703 * W / (H 2)$ , where W is the weight in lbs and H is the height in inches.

An easier way to find out your BMI is to use a BMI calculator or look up this reference table or the chart below.

Calculating Normal or Healthy Weight

What does BMI indicate?

Adults are grouped into the following categories based on BMI (body mass index):

BMI less than 18.5 : Underweight
BMI 18.5 to 24.9: Healthy weight range
BMI 25.0 to 29.9: Overweight
BMI more than 30: Obese
- BMI 30–35: Moderately obese (Obese Class I)
- BMI 35–40: Severely obese (Obese Class II)
- BMI > 40: Morbidly obese (Obese Class III)

This BMI chart shows BMI ranges for different height and weight combinations. Height can be in meters or feet and inches; weight can be looked up both in kilograms and pounds.

It should be noted, however, that BMI calculations can be misleading.^[1] Those considered overweight or obese may in comes cases be healthier than someone who appears to be conventionally healthy.

What causes excess weight?

Overweight is weighing more than the typical weight range given your age, sex, and height. Being overweight does not necessarily imply excess fat. People like athletes and bodybuilders can be overweight but not obese.

Overeating is not the only reason someone might be overweight; other causes include a sedentary lifestyle with no exercise, metabolic or eating disorders, or medical conditions like thyroid problems or other types of hormonal imbalance. Disabilities that inhibit exercise, and food allergies can also contribute to someone being overweight or even obese.

Psychological conditions can further contribute to weight issues and make treating them difficult. For example, it is possible for someone who is bulimic to be overweight at the same time.

Risks

Obesity is a major risk factor for serious health problems including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, etc. Though an overweight person also faces a risk of these medical problems but an obese is more susceptible to them.

Obese people are at high risk of depression and other social problems. Obesity is an excess of body fat sufficient to shorten one's life span and make one susceptible to a greater amount of illness than would occur if the body weight were normal. Calorific imbalance that results often develops from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. A combination of an excessive nutrient intake and a sedentary lifestyle are the main cause for the rapid acceleration of obesity.

Control

The safest and most effective way to lose weight in both cases is to reduce calories (balanced diet) and increase physical activity. In excess cases of obesity a person can undergo surgery.