|The problem with Obesity| Adult morbid or severe obesity has
been recognised as a worldwide pandemic with 1.1 billion people
worldwide being overweight. Severe obesity is a chronic,
debilitating incurable illness. In New Zealand we have an
environment that supports obesity with ready access to poor
nutrition in combination with reduced physical activity. The
table below illustrates the World Health Organisation (WHO)
definitions of weight and obesity as defined by the Body Mass
Index (BMI) as this is the most widely recognised accepted
measure (where BMI is the individuals’ weight in kilograms
divided by the height in meters squared). WHO classification of
weight by BMI