Obesity Epidemic Hits Middle East; Symptoms & Facts You Should Know

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Obesity rate in the Middle East is on the rise particularly in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The luxurious lifestyle and cozy work atmosphere in the countries could have contributed to the increase in obesity and diabetic rates.

About 37 million people in the Middle East and North America are living with diabetes said the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) noting that it is about 9.7 percent of the total population.  IDF also added that about 50 percent of cases are undiagnosed and the rates are expected to increase two folds in the Middle East in next 20 years, reported the CNN.

"I had become extremely obese, I was hypertensive, near diabetic, high cholesterol, high triglycerides," recalled Ahmed. "Worst of all, I had been prescribed asthmatic medicine ... because I was getting short of breath. I couldn't walk," said Shahzad Ahmed, who moved to Abu Dhabi with his family a decade ago, according to CNN.

Ahmed also said that "We are not very active, generally there's air conditioned atmosphere, we're doing work on the computers --watching TV." He also added that "You can eat anything anywhere-- In the office, we're having breakfast together. In the lunch time we're having a big feast. In the evening, when we're meeting people, we're having a big feast or going to different restaurants on the weekends. So that's contributed a lot for me gaining weight at a very fast rate."

About 1.9 billion adults around the world aged 18 and above are overweight according to World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2014. WHO also noted that 600 million of this overweight population were observed to be obese. About 42 million children under the age of 5 were reported to be obese as per data obtained by WHO in 2013. The obesity rate worldwide has reportedly doubled between 1980 and 2014.

People with body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25 are overweight and people with BMI 30 and above are obese indicates WHO. Obese people fall into three classes, obese class 1 are those with BMI 30 to 34.9, obese class 2 are those with BMI 35 to 39.9 and obese class 3 are those with BMI 40 and higher, according to Mayo clinic.  

The BMI classification of obesity is applicable for adults of both genders and all age groups. Mayo Clinic also noted that BMI is not a direct measure of body fat and therefore some people especially athletes might have BMI in obese category though they don't have that much of fat in their body to be categorised as obese.