Effects of food intervention in adults with overweight or obesity

Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of chronic diseases, such as hypertension, dislipidemia, diabetes mellitus (DM) 2, osteoarthritis, certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases.1,2 One sustained weight loss of only 3% to 5% may produce clinically significant benefits in some cardiovascular risk factors.2 In 2016, more than 1.9 billion (39%) of overweight adults had 650 million (13%) of whom were obese.3 Nationally, 22% of Portuguese are obese and 34% pre-obesity.4 According to the study based on data from the National Food Survey and Physical Activity (IAN-AF) conducted from 2015 to 2016, six out of ten Portuguese are pre-obese or obese.4 Obesity is defined as a condition in which there is excess body fat. The co-morbidities are the result of excess fat and not overweight. Currently, adipose tissue has been considered a new endocrine organ that actively synthesizes a wide variety of potent bioactive signaling molecules with autocrine, paracrine and endocrine functions. There are differences in the specific site of secretion of some of the molecules produced by adipose tissue that may help explain the large pathogenicity of intra-abdominal fat, however, in general its synthesis appears to be proportional to the total number of adipócitos.O body weight and body mass index (BMI) do not reflect or body composition or fat distribution.5