Profiling Obesity: Four Distinct Clinical Subtypes of High-BMI Australians

Abstract

Obesity, defined as an excess of fat in the body, is a condition with serious and numerous physical, social, psychological and economic consequences. Over the past 35 years, obesity has become a global epidemic, and Australia is one of the worst-affected nations. Over 63% of Australian adults are overweight or obese, and rates have been accelerating by 1% per year since the 1980s. Treatment advances have dramatically improved short-term weight loss outcomes, but relapse rates remain at a staggering 80-95% despite half a century of dedicated multidisciplinary research into this tenacious phenomenon. Researchers have identified a number of factors that explain this exceptionally high rate of relapse: the multiaetiological pathways to obesity; the breadth of factors implicated in the maintenance of obesity and the complexity of the interactions between these factors; the largely atheoretical nature of obesity treatments; and the inadequacy of Body Mass Index (BMI) as an accurate gauge of obesogenic risk have all been implicated in treatment failure.