Overweight and obesity are considered as one of the major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases that were, in 2012, the leading cause of death, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, and some cancers. In general, changes in eating habits and PA are the results of environmental and social changes associated with the social development and the lack of supportive policies in sectors such as health, the agriculture, transport, urban planning, environment, processing, distribution, and marketing of food and education. This situation also encourages the ingestion of high-calorie intake food and fast food.Īs an indication, Figure 1 shows the composition of a healthy body for men and women. The main cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between consumed and expended calories because of the current lifestyle where the new forms of work are more linked to computers and the long working days are causing an increase in the sedentary behavior and the reduction of the physical activity (PA) of the population.
This problem has become a challenge facing public healthcare systems and global economies. The global obesity rate is dramatically increasing. Sedentary jobs, technology advancements, and unhealthy foods are the key factors that lead to global obesity prevalence. Finally, this paper proposes an intelligent architecture that takes into account both, physiological and cognitive aspects to reduce the degree of obesity and overweight. The paper also shows a comprehensive study of the most used mobile applications and Wireless Body Area Networks focused on controlling the obesity and overweight. They include the promoting of healthy eating culture and adopting the physical activity lifestyle. Researchers and developers are adapting the existing technology, as intelligent phones or some wearable gadgets to be used for controlling obesity. This paper reviews the main techniques to measure the level of obesity and body fat percentage, and explains the complications that can carry to the individual's quality of life, longevity and the significant cost of healthcare systems. Obesity is a top public health problem due to its associated morbidity and mortality. 42 million children under the age of five were overweight or obese in 2014. In fact, more than 1.9 billion adults (39%) of 18 years and older were overweight and over 600 million (13%) of these were obese in 2014. Worldwide obesity has doubled since 1980. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimations, one out of five adults worldwide will be obese by 2025.
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