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Obesity Essay Obesity is an excess of body fat frequently resulting in a significant impairment of Health. Obesity results when the size or number of fat cells in a person's body increases. A normal-sized person has between 30 and 35 billion fat cells. When a person gains weight, these fat cells first increase in size and later in number. One pound of body fat represent about 3500 calories. When a person starts losing weight, the cells decrease in size but the number of fat cells generally stays the same. This is part of the reason that once you gain a significant amount of weight, it is more difficult to lose it. Each fat cell weighs a very small amount (about 0.4 to 0.6 micrograms), the weight of these billions and billions of fat cells add up significantly. It’s not very practical to count and measure the number of fat cells in a person's body, so science has come up with easier methods to determine if a person is obese. Most common is a weight scale that you may have in your own bathroom but less common is BMI or Body Mass Index. This is the calculation to find yours. Weight (kg) height(m) x height(m) What causes one person to gain weight while another person maintains their weight? As you g