What Causes Obesity

What causes obesity? Obesity is a condition whose primary feature is excessive body fat to the point of being detrimental to ones health.. Individuals having a BMI greater than 30 are generally considered obese. There are actually several causes of obesity.

The primary and most accepted cause of obesity is the excessive consumption of high fat high calorie foods, although excessive overeating of most food will cause obesity. A sedentary lifestyle especially when coupled with poor eating habits will also increase the risk of obesity.

While overeating is a lot of times what causes obesity, there are many factors involved in a persons propensity to become obese.

One such issue is culture or heritage. First we need to realize obesity was not always frowned upon, in the past in many cultures being overweight was viewed as a sign of social status, basically if you could afford to eat that much you probably are not poor. In some cultures this is still the trend. When medicine started to link more and more health problems to obesity , society in general started to frown upon the overweight in most places. Another cultural link is the type of foods a person may have been raised eating, I myself love pasta of all kinds Italian breads and Italian pastries especially Sfogliatelle. I remember dinner at my Meems included loads of food and one trip was never enough “eat some more” wasn’t really a question it was more of an order. The Italians are far from the only ones guilty of this my Great Grandmother was of German descent and the chorus of “eat some more” rang true with her too. Obviously this was not malicious but was done with love, however you can see how many of us were basically raised to overindulge.

Another factor is genetics if your parents were obese you will have a tendency to also be obese. Having a familial history increases your chance of being obese, I read somewhere the increase can be as much as 30 percent. This does not mean that you are doomed it means you have to fight harder. Orison Swett Marden said “The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other.” Just think about that, it is alright that we may never be the standard “ideal weight” as long as we do our best to improve and become healthy.

Psychological factors may be what causes obesity. I think we all know about comfort foods. Certain foods can be calming, when we are upset angry or under some other kind of emotional distress. Sometimes I feel the solution may be to sort out the emotional problems first.

Age and gender are also factors which contribute to obesity. With age our metabolism slows, also we tend to lose muscle mass also slowing metabolism even more. Women have more of a tendency to be obese due to body composition, men naturally have more muscle mass than women which makes it easier for men to burn calories.

Other more causes of obesity are quite rare, such as thyroid disorders.

What causes obesity is a fairly easy question to answer. The tough question is how do we combat obesity? We at What-is-obesity.net realize that there is no standard way to lose weight. What works for one person may not work for the next. So we are constantly looking for better ways to beat obesity. Don’t give up it’s a fight I am sure we can win.