ABSTRACT
This brief introduction underlines what is a dominant theme throughout the text: the perspective of the kinesiologist on the prevention and treatment of obesity. It comments on the viewpoint of many nutritionists that physical activity plays little role in either the prevention or the management of obesity, and it points to possible fallacies in this reasoning. It also looks at the history surrounding the replacement of euphemisms for the accumulation of excessive fat, such as polysarcie or embonpoint, by the more explicit term obesity. It then discusses currently accepted criteria of overweight and obesity, before outlining the organization of the text as a whole.
