What are the causes and risk factors for obesity?

Simply apart from the cause, obesity occurs when you take in more calories than you burn through exercise and normal daily activities, it is the imbalance between supply and demand of calories.

•  How the body converts food into energy,
•  How the body regulates appetite,
•  How the body burns calories during exercise, and
•  The family share similar eating and activity habits.

• Unhealthy diet, high in calories, lacking vegetables and fruits.
• Liquid calories, alcohol, sugared soft drinks.
• Inactivity is a sedentary lifestyle so it is easy to take in more calories than you burn.

• Cushing syndrome, arthritis.
• Medications antidepressant, steroids, antipsychotic, diabetes medicine like insulin.

• There is no safe area for walking or exercising,
• There is no access to healthy cooking and healthier foods.
• Adherence to obese people.

Age, by getting aged hormonal changes and a less active lifestyle increases the risk of obesity, if you don’t consciously control what you eat and become more physically active as you age, you’ll likely gain weight.

Other factors:

• Pregnancy causes the woman to gain weight during pregnancy.
• Giving up smoking is often associated with weight gain because most people replace nicotine pleasure with food when they give up smoking.
• Lack of sleep or too much sleep can cause hormonal changes that increase appetite.
• Stress, many people seek more high-calorie food in stressful situations.
• The gut bacteria are affected by the foods(microbiome function)
• Previous attempts to lose weight it is called yo-yo dieting can slow metabolism.

In spite of these risk factors you can modify them by diet, physical activity and exercise, and behavior changes.

Complications:

• Heart disease and stroke
• Diabetes II
• Certain cancer, uterus, breast, colon.
• Digestive problems, heartburn, GERD, gallbladder stone.
• Gynaecological and sexual problems, infertility in women and erectile dysfunction in men.
• Sleep apnea and its dangers.
• Osteoarthritis, due to the effect of heavy weight on joints.
• Diminish quality of life like avoiding public places, depression, disability, sham of guilt, social isolation, lower work achievement.

Prevention and treatment:

• Regular exercise 20-30 minutes a day fast walking or swimming.
• Healthy diet, a lot of green leave vegetables, fruit and all grains
• Identify situations that trigger out-of-control eating, and be aware of bad eating habits.
• Regular weight monitoring, at least once a week.
• Consistency to stick to the healthy-weight plan.

If regular exercise and diet are not enough and BMI is more than 35 we can advise for bariatric surgery.

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