Obesity, What Are The Reasons?

Obesity is defined as excessive fat accumulation that can increase risk of health problems including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. A person with a BMI more than 30kg/m² is considered obese. The main reason can be due to taking more calories than burning it.

Energy IN is the total calories that people get from food and beverages. While, energy OUT is the total calories that body uses such as walking, thinking, breathing and others. Excessive energy IN without let it OUT can cause body to have excessive calories that can lead to obesity. In order to maintain a healthy weight, make sure the energy IN and OUT are balanced. 

The housing area with no recreational places causes lack of people to be active. Fortunately, in Malaysia, each of housing area must have recreational places. Lack of physical activity is highly related to obesity. People tend to use cars rather than walking or cycling. Too much relax makes people to be less active. Television, computers, tablets and smartphones are the elements that contribute people to be less active or even NO active at all. In fact, more than 2 hours watching television per day has been linked to overweight and obesity. Modern technology gives high impact on people nowadays.

Fast food restaurants often selling food products with high calories even the size is small. The existence of these restaurants have increased the number of obesity in this world. The marketers influence children with a lot of advertisements at billboards or televisions. Their main target is to sway people to buy their high calorie food and, most people do that. The food might be delicious with low cost. But, it can contribute to excessive calories without realize it. Portion size of food is the other factor. Large portion size and meals in high refined grains, red meat, unhealthy fats and sugary drinks tends to make people to be overweight and obese. 

Genetics and medical problems such as Cushing’s Syndrome and Hypothyroidism are the other reasons of obesity. Certain medicines include corticosteroids and antidepressants can also contribute to increase body weight. Let your dietitians know your medical problems and each medications that you take to make sure that you can control your weight within normal BMI range throughout your life.  

References:

Harvard School of Public Health

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

NHS Choices

World Health Organization