ORIGINAL ARTICLE Obesity and overweight—their impact on individual and corporate health Hima Gupta 1 & Shweta Garg 2 Received: 2 January 2019 /Accepted: 4 March 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Background Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with at least 2.8 million people dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Once associated with high-income countries, obesity is now also prevalent in low- and middle- income countries. Not only an individual suffers from ill health, but also family members and organizations bear its conse- quences. The purpose of this study is to identify the prevalence of obesity and overweight and its association with five risk factors, namely unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, stress, alcohol consumption and smoking, in corporate organizations. Methods High expenses born by corporations because of high BMIs, which lead to overweight and obesity, are a problem. Descriptive research based on a cross-sectional study is used to target office workers in three different groups: group A is people aged 20–30 years old, group B is people 30–40 years old, and group C is people aged > 40 years. This study was conducted in West Asia, using a questionnaire as the instrument for the survey. Results The data were analyzed using regression and the Simple Lifestyle Index (SLSI). The higher the index, the healthier the person's lifestyle is. The professional’ s working hours in the office were observed. The results indicated that the more working hours in a day, the greater the chances of becoming obese or overweight. Discussion It is found that of the five risk factors, only two, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, were found to have significant relationships (p < 5%) with overweight and obesity. The other three factors, stress, alcohol consumption and smoking, did not play a significant role in increasing an individual's weight. As a person’ s BMI increases, the number of sick days, medical claims and health care costs increase. To reduce the burden of high medical costs on individuals and businesses, it is essential to have a health care awareness program. Keywords Obesity . Body mass index (BMI) . Comorbid diseases . Lifestyle diseases . Adiposity measures . Simple Lifestyle Index (SLSI) Background Obesity is a greater public health problem than communicable diseases in today's world. It is a well-known and established fact that obesity not only reduces life expectancy, but also decreases the quality of life. The rapid growth of obesity and overweight rates among Americans and Indians has become an important issue and has received extensive coverage by organizations (Senauer 2003). The medical community is referring to the obe- sity and overweight increase as an epidemic, and a major health crisis is coming. Traditionally, obesity and overweight have been considered a matter of personal responsibility. However, over time, businesses have been increasingly facing the problem of enormous medical costs (at an organizational level), and em- ployees are also facing numerous medical bills from hospitals. There is a transitional change in the focus of medical practitioners from blaming the individual to accusing society and above all specifically the food industry. The recent estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO) are as follows: – In 2016, > 1.9 billion adults aged ≥ 18 years were over- weight, 650 million of which were obese. * Hima Gupta himagupta17@gmail.com Shweta Garg shweta.kansal25@gmail.com 1 Indira Institute of Management, Pune, India 2 Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi, India Journal of Public Health: From Theory to Practice https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-019-01053-9