Health Risks of Overweight & Obesity

Overweight and obesity may increase your risk for many health problems—especially if you carry extra fat around your waist. Reaching and staying at a healthy weight can help prevent these problems, stop them from getting worse, or even make them go away.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease that occurs when your blood glucose, also called blood sugar, is too high. Nearly 9 in 10 people with type 2 diabetes have overweight or obesity.12 Over time, high blood glucose can lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, eye problems, nerve damage, and other health problems.

If you are at risk for type 2 diabetes, you may be able to prevent or delay diabetes by losing at least 5% to 7% of your starting weight.13,14 For instance, if you weigh 200 pounds, your goal would be to lose about 10 to 14 pounds.

Overweight and obesity may raise your risk for high blood pressure.

High blood pressure external link, also called hypertension, is a condition in which blood flows through your blood vessels with a force greater than normal. Having a large body size may increase blood pressure because your heart needs to pump harder to supply blood to all your cells. Excess fat may also damage your kidneys, which help regulate blood pressure.

High blood pressure can strain your heart, damage blood vessels, and raise your risk of heart attack, stroke NIH external link, kidney disease, and death.10 Losing enough weight to reach a healthy body mass index range may lower high blood pressure and prevent or control related health problems.

Heart disease

Heart disease external link is a term used to describe several health problems that affect your heart, such as a heart attack, heart failure, angina external link, or an abnormal heart rhythm. Having overweight or obesity increases your risk of developing conditions that can lead to heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol external link, and high blood glucose. In addition, excess weight can also make your heart have to work harder to send blood to all the cells in your body. Losing excess weight may help you lower these risk factors for heart disease.

Stroke

A stroke happens when a blood vessel in your brain or neck is blocked or bursts, cutting off blood flow to a part of your brain. A stroke can damage brain tissue and make you unable to speak or move parts of your body.

Overweight and obesity are known to increase blood pressure—and high blood pressure is the leading cause of strokes. Losing weight may help you lower your blood pressure and other risk factors for stroke, including high blood glucose and high blood cholesterol.

Metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome external link is a group of conditions that increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, you must have at least three of the following conditions

large waist size

high level of triglycerides external link in your blood

high blood pressure

high level of blood glucose when fasting

low level of HDL cholesterol external link —the “good” cholesterol—in your blood

Metabolic syndrome is closely linked to overweight and obesity and to a lack of physical activity. Healthy lifestyle changes that help you control your weight may help you prevent and reduce metabolic syndrome.

Fatty liver diseases

Fatty liver diseases develop when fat builds up in your liver, which can lead to severe liver damage, cirrhosis, or even liver failure. These diseases include nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). 

NAFLD and NASH most often affect people who have overweight or obesity. People who have insulin resistance, unhealthy levels of fat in the blood, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and certain genes can also develop NAFLD and NASH.

If you have overweight or obesity, losing at least 3% to 5% of your body weight may reduce fat in the liver.