The percentage of Taiwanese men who are overweight is rising due to lifestyle changes, a researcher said on Thursday.
The share of overweight Taiwanese has steadily increased since 2016, reaching 47.9 percent of adults in 2019, Health Promotion Administration data showed.
The data showed that 66.6 percent of Taiwanese men aged 35 to 44 are overweight or obese, making it the demographic with the largest share of overweight or obese people.
The share of overweight or obese women in the same age group is 30 percentage points lower, the data showed.
For women, the age group with the highest share of overweight or obese people is that of 65 or older, with 58.8 percent, it showed.
The agency classifies people with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 30 as overweight, and those with a BMI of above 30 as obese.
To calculate a person’s BMI, their weight in kilograms is divided by the square of their height in meters.
Starting this year, the agency’s annual health statistics report compiles overweight and obesity data in four-year periods. For the previous period, from 2013 to 2016, the agency found that 45.4 percent of Taiwanese were overweight or obese.
Lu Chia-wen (盧佳文), a doctor in National Taiwan University Hospital’s family medicine department, said that the high share of overweight or obese men aged 35 to 44 might be due to many men of that age group experiencing major changes in their life, for example when they start working in more demanding jobs or start a family.
“These changes lead to added stress at work and at home, which might lead to changed eating habits and less time for physical activities,” Lu said. “Men of that age group also experience slower metabolism, which might lead to them gaining weight.”
Many men are not aware of that process and only realize that they are gaining weight when they are already overweight, she added.
“Studies have found that women are more sensitive and care more about their body,” she said, adding that higher estrogen levels reduce the risk of gaining weight.
This “protects” women from unwanted weight gain until menopause, when their metabolism also slows down, she said.
The proportion of overweight and obese men is in general higher than that of women, she said, citing statistics from Japan, Singapore and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Unwanted weight gain is usually caused by genetic factors, excessive consumption of processed foods with high levels of sugar and fat, and a lack of exercise, medical experts say.
Overweight and obese people are more susceptible to high blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as cardiovascular disease and cancer, experts say.
When an overweight or obese person loses weight, their health condition usually improves, experts say, with studies finding lower rates of infertility, gastroesophageal reflux, osteoarthritis, and sleep apnea and other breathing disorders after a weight loss.
HPA Health Education and Tobacco Control Division head Lo Su-ying (羅素英) said that despite the share of overweight and obese adults continuing to rise, the trend has slowed in the past few years.
To help further reverse the trend, the agency is drafting guidelines on overweight control, Lo said, adding that it is also working on programs to be conducted at schools, among families, and in hospitals and communities to promote weight control from a young age.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS