I used to think obesity was just about overeating or skipping the gym.
I was wrong.
It’s only when I dug deeper — through science, personal stories, and social systems — that I realized obesity isn’t just about food. It’s about class. About systems. About a trap that many of us don’t even know we’re in… until it’s too late.
Let me walk you through what no one told me about the “classes” in obesity — not just the medical ones, but the ones that go much deeper. The kind that create lifelong battles and quietly steal futures.
⚕️ Class I: What Doctors Measure — But Miss
Most doctors classify obesity like this:
- Class I: BMI 30–34.9 (Moderate)
- Class II: BMI 35–39.9 (Severe)
- Class III: BMI 40+ (Morbid)
Simple, right?
But behind these numbers lies something terrifying: each step up drastically increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and even certain cancers. And yet… many of us don’t even know we’ve crossed those lines until we’re on medication for life.
But it’s important to remember that BMI isn’t the whole story. While it’s a quick and easy screening tool, it doesn’t directly measure body fat. For example, a very muscular person might have a high BMI but not excess body fat.
That’s why other classifications and measurements are also considered, such as:
- Waist circumference: This can be a good indicator of abdominal fat, which is strongly linked to health risks. Generally, a waist circumference of more than 40 inches (102 cm) for men and more than 35 inches (88 cm) for women is considered high risk.
- Body fat percentage: More direct measurements like skinfold thickness, bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), or more advanced techniques like DEXA scans can estimate the percentage of body fat. While there aren’t universally agreed-upon cutoffs for obesity based solely on body fat percentage, it provides a more nuanced picture.
- Comorbidities: The presence of obesity-related health conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, and certain cancers also plays a significant role in understanding the severity and impact of obesity.
So, while BMI gives us a starting point, healthcare professionals often use a combination of these factors to get a comprehensive understanding of an individual’s weight status and associated health risks. It’s all about painting a complete picture, not just relying on one number!
Other dimensions which are contributing discussed below:
🍟 The Fast-Food Trap
I’ve seen it everywhere — in crowded urban slums, at gas stations, in schools.
The cheapest food?
Is the worst food.
Companies know this. They engineer flavors to hook you. Add sugar where it doesn’t belong. Put junk at kids’ eye-level in grocery stores. And worst of all? They lobby against laws that would expose them.
And when people like me gain weight from this system?
We get blamed.
Not the system.
Not the corporations.
Us.
🧬 The Genetic Misdirection
“Maybe you’re just born with it.”
Sure, genetics play a role. But they don’t explain why obesity has tripled in the last few decades.
That’s not genetics.
That’s environmental conditioning.
We now know there are subtypes of obesity:
- Some with healthy metabolisms (for a while)
- Others with hidden visceral fat around organs
- Even a type with high fat and dangerously low muscle (common in older people)
But how many of us are tested for that?
We’re handed a BMI chart and told, “Eat less, move more.”
That’s like giving a Band-Aid to someone with internal bleeding.
🏙️ The Poorer You Are, the More You Pay
Here’s the cruel truth:
In low-income neighborhoods, obesity is often the norm — not because of lack of willpower, but because of:
- Unsafe streets with no parks
- Schools with no physical education
- No access to fresh produce
- No time to cook healthy meals while working two jobs
It’s not about being lazy.
It’s about being locked into a system.
👨👩👧 Obesity Is Inherited — But Not Just Genetically
This one breaks me.
When parents are stuck in food traps, children inherit their diets, habits, and health outcomes.
I’ve seen it:
- A child drinking soda before they learn to read
- A teen so ashamed of their size they stop going outside
- A grandmother unable to walk because of untreated weight gain in her 40s
We are watching obesity pass down like poverty, like trauma. And if we don’t change the system, it will never stop.
🧠 Obesity of the Mind
Let’s talk about the emotional weight.
Obesity isn’t just about fat. It’s about:
- Shame
- Anxiety
- Isolation
We internalize the judgment. We hide.
And food — the very thing that harmed us — becomes comfort.
It becomes the only thing we feel in control of in a world that constantly tells us we’re not enough.
🏛️ The Governance Black Hole
Why doesn’t someone fix this?
Because no one is truly accountable.
- Food companies self-regulate
- Governments delay policies under pressure
- Healthcare systems treat symptoms, not causes
There’s no tax on ultraprocessed food, no warning labels like on cigarettes, no laws banning junk food ads for kids.
The silence is deliberate.
⏳ The Late-Stage Realization
Obesity rarely “hurts” at first.
It creeps in.
A bigger shirt size. A little fatigue.
Then… one day it’s blood sugar spikes.
Joint pain. Sleep apnea. Depression.
By then, reversing it is 10x harder. The damage is done. And the cost — emotional, physical, financial — is immense.
💡 So What Do We Do?
If you’ve made it this far, maybe you’re like me — someone who’s not okay with the status quo.
Here’s what we can do:
- Demand policy reform — not just diet tips
- Support better food labeling and taxes on junk
- Talk openly about mental health and obesity
- Treat people with empathy, not blame
Because obesity isn’t one class.
It’s many classes, layered on top of each other, like a heavy coat no one asked to wear.
🔚 Final Words
I didn’t write this to scare you.
I wrote it because I was scared. I saw what obesity does — not just to bodies, but to families, futures, and societies.
It’s time we stop seeing obesity as a personal failure and start seeing it as a systemic issue that demands bold, emotional, and structural change.
Let’s not wait for another generation to suffer what we silently did.