One medical condition affecting Americans today is morbid obesity, a condition where someone is overweight by at least 100 pounds, with excessive amounts of body fat. If you are morbidly obese, you are at a high risk for many medical problems, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and even premature death. In addition, you may be presented with social and emotional obstacles in your daily life, although there are options like JSAPA Weight Loss Surgery available to help.

It is important to know that there are many factors that can affect your weight. Being morbidly obese or requiring weight loss surgery is not a judgment that you are weak, lazy, or a glutton. A combination of genetics, eating behaviors, hormones, and psychological factors can affect your tendency to gain weight at an unhealthy level. These factors can also make it more difficult for you to lose weight and sustain long-term weight loss.

Obesity can be treated by your physician using various resources, including nutritional and exercise guidance, counseling, and weight loss surgery. If you want to know whether or not you are morbidly obese, a simple online search for a body mass index calculator can help. A body mass index (BMI) calculator can estimate what you should weigh based on your height. If your BMI is above 30, you may be obese; if it is above 40, you may be morbidly obese. Your physician can also provide other tools to evaluate your BMI in conjunction with the level of your physical activity, your diet, family history, and other information, to determine if weight loss surgery is right for you.