Obesity is becoming a general social problem, irrespectigvely of age and gender. During the last decade the number of obese people in the developed and developing countries has increased over twice. Unfavourable metabolic effects are associated not only with the amount of fatty tissue in the body, but also with the way of its distribution. The content of abdominal fat correlates with an increased cardiovascular risk and the occurrence of insulin resistnance, type-2 diabetes and concentration of proinflammatory cytokines, such as CRP, Il-6, TNF-α, PAI-1. Overweight and obesity unfavourably affect human life span. Apart from an increased mortality risk associated with the excess of fatty tissue, obesity brings about a serous risk of the development of numeropus chroinic disorders and diseases. It also exerts an unfavourable effect on the quality of life of patients irrespectively of race, gender and age. There are reports in literature concerning health benefits connected with obesity and surprising effects associated with its development or control. These benefits, with pathomechanism which is sometimes difficult to explain, are called the obesity paradox. The obesity paradox concerns, among other things, prolonged life span among obese people belonging to some ethnic group, or a lower or higher mortality among patients who had undergone coronoplasty.