Obesity is a medical condition that occurs when a person carries excess weight or body fat that might affect their health. A doctor will usually suggest that a person has obesity if they have a high body mass index.
Body mass index BMI is a tool that doctors use to assess if a person is at an appropriate weight for their age, sex, and height. The measurement combines height and weight. Read more on BMI on our other blog.
If a person has obesity and excess weight, this can increase their risk of developing a number of health conditions, including metaboc syndrome, arthritis, and some types of cancer.
Metabolic syndrome involves a collection of issues, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Maintaining a healthy weight of losing through diet and exercise is one way to prevent or reduce obesity.
Read on to find out why obesity happens.
A person has a lower risk of obesity if their diet mainly consists of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
1. Consuming too many calories
When a person consumes more calories that they use as energy, their body will store the extra calories as fat. This can lead to excess body weight and obesity. Some types of food are more likely to lead to weight gain, especially those that are high in fats and sugars. Foods that tend to increase the rish of weight gain include:
-fast foods
-fried foods, like french fries
-fatty and processed meats
-many dairy products
-foods with added sugar, such as baked goods, ready made beakfast cereals and cookies
-foods containing hidden sugars: like ketchup (tomato sauce) mayonaise, and many other canned and packaged food items
-sweetened juices, sodas, and alcoholic drinks
-processed high-carb foods like bread and bagels
-some processed food products contain high fructose corn syrup as a sweetner, including savoury items like tomato sauce.
2. Not sleeping enough
Research has suggested that missing sleep increases the risk of gaining weight and developing obesity.
Sleep deprivation significantly increases obesity risk in both adults and children. When a person does not sleep enough, their body produces a hormone called ghrelin that stimulates appetite. At the same time, a lack of sleep also results in a lower production of leptin, a hormone that suppresses the appetite.
3. Phycology around food and habit
Food is often used as a coping mechanism by those with weight problems, particularly when they are sad, anxious, stressed, lonely and frustrated. In many obese individuals there appears to be a perpetual cycle of mood disturbance, overeating and weight gain. When they feel distressed, they turn to food to help cope, and though such comfort eating may result in temporary attenuation of their distressed mood, the weight gain that results may cause a dysphoric mood due to their inability to control their stress. The resulting guilt may reactivate the cycle, leading to a continuous pattern of using food to cope with emotions.
This pattern is particularly applicable if there is a genetic predisposition for obesity or a "toxic" environment in which calorically dense foods are readily available and physical activity is limited.
In addition to depression and anxiety, other risk factors include problematic eating behaviours such as "mindless eating" frequent snacking on high calorie foods, overeating, and night eating. Binge eating disorder (BED: recurrent episodes of eating during a discrete period of time - at least 2 days a week over a 6 month period) eating quantities of food that are larger than most people would eat during a similar amount of time; sense of lack of control during the episodes; and guilt or distress following the episodes. BED is estimated to occur in approximately 2% of the general population and between 10% and 25% of the bariatric population. An important differentiation between BED and bulimia / anorexia is that BED is not associated with any regular compensatory behaviours, like purging, fasting oor excessive exercise. So the majority of individuals with BED are overweight.
Night eating is another disorder that can lead to significant weight gain, through night eating syndrome(NES). NES is characterised by excessive nighttime consumtion (More than 35% of daily calories after the evening meal), unhealthy eating patterns, "morning anorexia", insomnia and distress. NES has been viewed as a disorder of circadian rhythm that includes a delay of appetite in the mornings and the continuation of appetite and overeating into the night.
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That concludes our list of the top 5 weight loss trends this year.
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Sunninghill: 011 202 5087
Sandton: 010 226 9844
Pretoria: 012 472 0175
Email: info@divabeautystudio.com
Website: www.divaglobal.net
Follow Us:
Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube