Obesity and Weight Management

Biography

Biography: Kumaravel Velayutham

Abstract

“For the first time in human history, the number of overweight people rivals the number of underweight people. While the world’s underfed population has declined slightly since 1980 to 1.1 billion, the number of overweight people has surged to 1.1 billion” as quoted by the World Watch Institute in 2004. India being a developing country is undergoing a rapid epidemiological and nutritional transition along with demographic transition and is posed by the double threat of both under and over nutrition. Obesity has serious consequences when started in childhood, as there is a long period of exposure before they reach adulthood. There is big challenge in tackling childhood obesity in India, as there are also children who are undernourished. More important was that the obesity prevalence varied in different regions and different schools with in the same region. Since children spend most of their time in schools, we found that schools would be the best place for intervention both for prevention and management of obesity. We had identified school factors that predispose to childhood obesity and had suggested school based interventions in the management of obesity epidemic. This includes school based nutritional changes, increasing the energy expenditure through non-exercise associated thermogenesis (NEAT) like walking in classroom concept, behavior and psychological counseling to the teachers, parents and students.