The Center for Disease Control announced in one of its most recent studies that an estimated 64 percent of Americans is are overweight or obese. Over the past twenty years obesity trends have skyrocketed. Obesity has also been linked to many medical illnesses like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes. It is no secret that being overweight or obese is unhealthy and that something should be done to prevent it. If we want to fight this harmful trend [,] then we need to attack what is causing it. This paper will explore the increase in fast food consumption, reliance on technology and genetics as possible causes for the increase of obesity in the United States. .
The medical definition {singular or plural one definition.is.} of overweight and obesity are defined by individual body mass indexes, or BMI. According to the International Journal of Obesity (1985) [,] body mass index is determined based on an individual's height and weight and serves as an indicator of obesity in adults. Medical findings endorsed by the Surgeon General suggest that one possible explanation for the rising trend of obesity is genetics in conjunction with environmental factors that cause an imbalance between calorie consumption and expenditure. Currently, studies have not been able to accurately pinpoint all the genes and their mechanisms that lead to obesity. {this attempts dual tasks ambitiously you might have separated the genetics discussion into its own } However, the environmental factors that lead to obesity can adequately be described. Eating too many calories and not doing enough physical activity to burn excess calories obviously leads to a caloric imbalance. The surplus of calories are then converted into fat and stored in the body as calorie reserves. When there is an excess amount of reserves the body gains weight and if the reserves are high enough the individual will become overweight and possibly obese.