51% women in Hyderabad city are either overweight or obese

HYDERABAD: As much as 51 per cent of women in Hyderabad are either overweight or obese with Body Mass Index more than or equal to 25 kg/m2 while it was 30.1 per cent for entire Telangana, a compendium done by Council for Social Development (CSD) for 2019-20 has said.

The compendium, which was published for the Planning Department, Telangana, to strengthen the newly-formed state database, was released by K.  Ramakrishna Rao, special chief secretary (Planning). This compendium captures 99 indicators at the district level.

“(With) 14.0 per cent Kumuram Bheem Asifabad has the lowest percentage of women who are overweight or obese (BMI = 25.0 kg/m2) across Telangana state in 2019-2020. 30.1 per cent 9 for Telangana in  2019-2020. (With) 51.0 per cent, Hyderabad has the highest percentage of women who are overweight or obese (BMI = 25.0 kg/m2) across Telangana state in 2019-2020,” the report said.

Nutritionist and Harmone Health coach Ali Mohammed told this newspaper, “There are several factors which contribute to overweight among women in urban areas than rural areas. Sedentary lifestyle, frequent consumption of junk food/ fast foods, engaging domestic help at home due to job lowering physical activity, lower exposure to sunlight etc. All these lead to obesity among women in urban areas.”

Nutritionist Sujatha Stephen, said, “The changing lifestyles due to Covid-19 pandemic, work from home concept due to lockdowns and restrictions also contributed to obesity among women in urban areas. The stress levels among urban women also increased which also contributed to overweight.”

Contrary to that, the report said, 18.8 per cent women in the state have their BMI below normal levels. With 12.4 per cent, Hyderabad has the lowest percentage of women whose BMI is below normal while with 27.5 per cent Jogulamba Gadwal has the highest percentage.