The Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity

With this introduction, let me define obesity, overweight, central adiposity, and the

metabolic syndrome. Not all readers may be familiar with some of the current termino-
logy and I have prepared an appendix of definitions in addition to what is provided in the

text. Obesity refers to an increase in body fat, a measurement that is not easily done in
clinical practice because interpretation of body fatness depends on such factors as gender,
age, ethnic group, and level of physical activity.