What is Obesity?

While I am on a brief holiday in Berlin, I thought I’d rerun a few earlier posts that discuss the issue of measuring obesity and how such measures may or may not be helpful in obesity management - as many readers may not have seen these posts before, comments are very much appreciated. The following was first posted on July 28, 2008 Don’t worry - I am not going to take off on a discussion about whether obesity is a disease or “simply” a risk factor. I am also not going to discuss again obesity definitions - anthropometric or otherwise. Today’s post is simply about an analogy that may help sharpen our clinical thinking around excess weight. Think of someone who has an elevated plasma creatinine level (a marker of kidney failure) - the eleva...