Health professionals know that being 20 or more pounds overweight is associated with a number of health problems, including impairment of cardiac function due to an increase in the work of the heart, left ventricular dysfunction, hypertension, diabetes, renal disease, gall bladder disease, joint diseases and gout, abnormal lipid and lipoprotein concentrations, and problems in the administration of anesthetics during surgery.

Take this quiz and determine into which category you fall to estimate approximately how much weight you need to lose to reach your "desirable body weight."

  Fat Screening Quiz
Do you enjoy eating too much food?
Do you consistently eat too fast?
Do you skip breakfast?
Do you eat for something to do?
Have you ever been eating a snack food and been surprised to reach into the box or bag and find it was already empty?
Do you feel guilty after eating too much?
Do you begin your first helping with thoughts of the second and third helpings?
Have you ever argued with a family member over your eating patterns?
Have you ever been told by a doctor to lose weight?
Have you ever considered hypnosis to lose weight?
Have any of your immediate family ever had severe weight problems?
Have you ever lost friendships because of your eating habits?
Do you ever think about food the minute you wake up?
Do you frequently awaken during the night and get up to find something to eat?
Do friends and relatives tell you either kindly or rudely that you are too fat?
Have you ever gone to someone for help about your overeating?
Have you ever attended meetings of overweight people to lose weight?
Do you feel that you are a normal eater (three meals per day and perhaps a light snack or two)?
Has your overeating ever created problems between you and your wife, husband, parents, or a near relative?
When you weigh yourself, do you think there is something wrong with the scales?
Do you sneak or hide food?
Does being overweight make you depressed?
Does being overweight make you feel secure?
Does being overweight make you happy?
Do you feel that by being overweight your are hurting a loved one?
Do you forget about your problems when you eat?
Do you think that by being overweight that you will be protected from a life situation that you would rather not deal with (attractive to the opposite sex)?
Do you invent excuses for yourself to eat?
Have you ever felt the need to cut down on your eating?