Obesity and Its Complications
Obesity is a chronic condition. It is generally defined as when you have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. This condition puts you at risk of having diseases such as Heart disease, Stroke, High blood pressure, Diabetes, Cancers, Osteoarthritis, Gout, Depression, Obstructive sleep apnea.
Body mass index (BMI) is just one measure used to define obesity, but where your excess body fat is located also matters. If it's mostly around your stomach (the apple shape) and if you have a pear shape, meaning that your extra weight is mostly around your hips and buttocks. Unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as not getting enough physical activity and eating high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and beverages, can raise your risk of overweight and obesity.
What causes overweight and obesity?
Overweight and obesity can develop over time when you consume more calories than you use. This is also described as an energy imbalance, when your energy in (calories) does not equal your energy out (calories your body uses for things such as breathing, digesting food, and being physically active. Your body uses certain nutrients, such as carbohydrates or sugars, proteins, and fats, from the foods you eat to make and store energy. Food is turned into energy for immediate use to power routine daily body functions and physical activity. Food is stored as energy for future use by your body. Sugars are stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles. Fats are stored mainly as triglyceride in fatty tissue.
An energy imbalance causes your body to store more fat than can be used now or in the future. But your risk of developing overweight or obesity is determined by more than how much you eat. It also includes the types and amount of food and drinks you consume each day, your level of physical activity and how much good-quality sleep you get each night.
All of these factors, as well as many others, can contribute to weight gain.
What raises the risk of overweight and obesity?
Lack of physical activity, Unhealthy eating behaviours can increase your risk for overweight and obesity.
-
Eating more calories than you use: The number of calories you need, will vary based on your sex, age, and physical activity level
- Eating too much saturated fat: The amount of saturated fat in your daily diet should be no more than 10% of your total calories. For a 2,000-calorie diet, that’s about 200 calories or about 22 grams of saturated fat
- Eating foods high in added sugar: On a daily basis, try to limit the amount of added sugar in your diet to no more than 10% of your calories
- Not getting enough good-quality sleep: Research has shown a link between poor sleep — not getting enough sleep or not getting enough good-quality sleep — and a high BMI. Regularly getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night can affect the hormones that control hunger urges
- High amounts of stress-Long-term and even short-term stress can affect the brain and trigger your body to make hormones, such as cortisol, that control energy balances and hunger urges. These hormone changes can make you eat more and store more fat
- Health conditions -Some conditions, such as metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome, cause to gain weight. These medical conditions must be treated for a person’s weight to come close to or into normal range
- Genetics-Studies show that genetics may play a more important role in people with obesity than in people who are overweight. For people with a genetic high risk for obesity, making healthy lifestyle changes can help lower that risk
- Medicines-Some medicines cause weight gain by disrupting the chemical signals that tell your brain you are hungry
Lifestyle changes that can reduce weight include following a heart-healthy eating plan lower in calories and unhealthy saturated fats and increasing physical activity. Reaching and maintaining weight loss for the long term is challenging and adopt heart-healthy lifestyle changes. This will help prevent obesity-related complications.
