[Practice clinical guideline. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of overweight and obesity]

Excess body weight (overweight and obesity) is currently recognized as one of the most important challenges of public health in the world, due to its size, speed of growth and the negative effect on health. Currently, Mexico and United States have the highest prevalence of obesity in the adult population (30 %), which is nearly ten times higher than that of Japan or Korea (4 %). In our country, the trends of overweight and obesity in different national surveys show steady increase in prevalence over time. According to the results of the National Survey of Health and Nutrition 2012 (ENSANUT, according to its initials in Spanish), the combined prevalence of overweight or obese (BMI = 25 kg/m(2)) in the population over 20 years is higher in women (73.0 %) than men (69.4 %), while the prevalence of obesity (BMI = 30 kg/m(2)) is almost higher in females than in males. Global experience shows that proper care of obesity and overweight requires formulating and coordinating comprehensive and efficient multilevel strategies for enhancing protective factors to health, particularly to modify individual, family and community behavior. It is unlikely that a single intervention can modify the incidence or natural history of overweight and obesity.