Diagnosis and prevalence of obesity

Obesity is a condition of increased adipose tissue mass. Many techniques are available for measurement of body fat, but none is available widely for clinical purposes. The new technique of bioelectrical impedance may change this in the future. For now, relative weight and BMI are used as indices of obesity, which may be defined as a BMI greater than 30 kg per m2. This corresponds to a relative weight approximately 120 per cent above desirable. According to this definition, obesity exists in 10 to 12 per cent of adult men and women in the United States and Canada.