It seems that in modern times our culture is obsessed with weight loss and it is often times seen as a primary indicator of your overall health. Why is this so?
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Weight serves two purposes in general health:
First: Weight is a good indicator in the modern world of unhealthy habits. Specifically, weight gain is often connected to poor diet, a lack of exercise, and other lifestyle issues that have other negative impacts on your health. Even if it’s not habits, there are a lot of health issues that can contribute to being overweight, including hormonal issues and some chronic diseases.
Second: excess weight often has it’s own impact on health. Extra weight means that you need more oxygen so your lungs have to work harder; your heart has to push more blood around; your bones are holding up more weight and thus may be overstressed, as are your muscles and joints, and so on.
That said: there is good reason to believe that it is overused as a health indicator. There are a significant number of reports of health issues being dismissed by doctors saying “lose weight – it will go away”; in some cases resulting in the person dying from an easily-treatable medical condition that the doctors refused to test for. It has also been connected to sexism (women are more likely to be perceived as being overweight) and racism (Blacks and Pacific Islanders both are more likely to be “overweight” by medical standards while being physically healthy – there’s some indications there might be genetic reasons for this).
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