Obesity is a chronic, epidemic, preventable, high-cost illness, characterized by the abnormal or excessive accumulation of body fat. This illness is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be the world’s second preventable cause of death, behind tobacco consumption.

It is known that obesity is an important risk factor in the appearance of certain illnesses, among which the most predominant are cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain kinds of cancer. These disorders or illnesses (co-morbidities) become worse along with the severity of the obesity and almost always improve with an appropriate treatment of the obesity.