ABSTRACT
Few will have escaped the avalanche of scientifi c and public comments about obesity in the last few years. Escalating concerns over an ‘obesity epidemic’ have been fuelled by the dramatic increase of epidemiological, physiological and medical literature on obesity (see an overview in Gard and Wright 2005) and its recuperation by the media, educational institutions, health and fi tness practitioners, and public health offi cials. This crisis is said to affl ict an increasing number of countries in the world and threatens a global health catastrophe (WHO 2000). The World Health Organization has even declared obesity a ‘disease’ (WHO 2006).
