Obesity is in essence the abnormal accumulation of fat in the body and it shouldn’t be too hard to understand that anything abnormal in the body is a danger to it. It is very crucial to understand this issue properly if we are to combat it with successful results. In order to help you with that, we have decided to provide you with a comprehensive outlook on obesity so that you can plan your fight against it in a better and more effective manner.
Understanding obesity and its causes
Obesity is basically the accumulation of excessive amount of fats in the body which lead to a person gaining an abnormal amount of weight. It is actually considered to be a disorder and that alone should give an idea about its seriousness. While most people may think of it as a cosmetic problem, the health risks related to obesity are actually very serious.
There are a number of different reasons that can lead to an onslaught of obesity and each and every one of them needs to be tackled differently since all of them have different parameters. The reasons that lead to a person becoming overweight or obese include the following.
- Sedentary lifestyle: Being a couch potato it seems is becoming the biggest reason of all in the occurrence of obesity. With so much ease provided to us in our daily lives by technology, we have become used to not moving around as much as we once used to and that has led to a piling up of the calories we consume, the level of which has obviously not gone down.
- Pregnancy: It is a very common thing to see women who are pregnant gaining weight. This is actually necessary too since the extra food consumption is what is required to keep the fetus healthy. However, once they have given birth, most women find it very difficult to lose the weight that they have gained and that leads to obesity.
- Medical reasons: There are several medical conditions that upset the body’s energy balance and while a person may have had a good healthy lifestyle, the disease can take all that away and bring about a sudden gain in weight. This can lead to a proper development of obesity in those people and both men and women are equally vulnerable to this problem.
- Unhealthy eating: This is one of the most common known reasons for obesity now, especially in the first world countries. With food chains providing foods that are rich in bad calories and have very little nutrients, the ultimate result is an excessive amount of consumption and eventually, the onslaught of obesity.
The above reasons can also provide us with an idea of the type of people who are at a risk of becoming obese. If you have an inactive lifestyle, bad eating habits or other medical reasons, you are very much at the risk of becoming obese.
Health problems
Obesity can lead to several very serious problems if not tended to properly and on time. As far as the physical deterioration is concerned, since obesity is usually coupled with inactivity, it leads to deterioration in muscles which can be very problematic when you need to perform strenuous activities. Also the weight gain is in itself a very serious troublemaker since it can put a lot of stress on the bones, causing them to become weak. Last but not the least, the excessive fat that is being consumed leads to an abnormal amount of cholesterol precipitation in the blood vessels and that can lead to blockages and serious heart diseases too. Problems as serious and sometimes fatal as pulmonary embolism have been associated with cholesterol accumulation in the blood vessels that is caused by obesity.
Treating obesity
In simple words, the process required to control obesity has to be the complete opposite of the things that actually led to its development in the first place. To reverse inactivity, one has to change their lifestyle, stop being a couch potato and start exercising on a daily basis. The food consumption needs to be controlled and all the junk food needs to be replaced by fresh and healthy food. In addition to that the composition of the diet also has to be right, meaning that the right amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates should be consumed daily. As for those who have medical reasons, they must contact their physician immediately and discuss the problem to find a suitable cure.
If you are interested in further exploration on the topic, here is a link for UK government policies regarding the issue.
