An international committee of experts has published in The Lancet An updated definition of obesity: it is a “chronic, systemic disease, linked to an excess of adiposity in many organs and tissues whose functions are altered, with or without distribution anomaly or function of the adipose tissue itself”. It distinguishes preclinical obesity, a risk factor, clinical obesity, pathology. The latter is therefore determined by the calculation of the body mass index (BMI), corresponding to the weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of the size (in meters), completed, if the result is between 25 and 40 kg/m2by the measure of excess adiposity and its bodily distribution (beyond 40, excess adiposity is immediately supposed). This is done either by anthropometric measurements (size tower, size/hip reports, size/height tower), or by direct body fat. Clinical obesity is confirmed when a reduction in the function of an organ or fabric is noted or in the event of a significant reduction in daily activities. In France, 17 % of adults are in a situation of obesity according to the ESTEBAN Public Health France study in 2015, which represents around 8 million people. In the world, this percentage doubled between 1990 and 2022, in particular due to the evolution of lifestyles, increased sedentary lifestyle and more and more transformed food.
Sources: “obesity: new definition, new care”, the practitioner’s review; Public health France; Santougouv.fr; “The Lancet: Definition and diagnostic criteria for clinical obesity”, French and French -speaking society of obesity surgery and metabolic diseases.
