You don’t like what you see?
It’s all about your weight and body shape, which’s not satisfying for you.
The world rolls around some standards and optimum conditions that led people to follow. From which comes the standard weight and shape.
As much as it is preferable to be yourself, set your own standards, and show your distinction, as much as in this case, it affects your health deeply more than you imagine.
It is where many chronic diseases could happen, starting from Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, high Cholesterol, and reaching several cancer types. Serious, isn’t it?
From this point comes the actual severity of obesity, which we dedicated this whole article to discuss in details. Causes, symptoms, complications, and how to prevent.
What is obesity?
Obviously, it has a major evident symptom displayed on the body shape.
But having extra weight doesn’t mean that it’s obesity; it could be just being overweight.
So, how it’s measured?
For instance, it has its own index called the Body Mass Index (BMI).
The BMI could be indicated easily by yourself; you just divide your weight in Kilograms by your height squared in meters: Weight/ (height)2
Or, divide your weight in Pounds (lbs) by your height in inches and multiply it by 70.3.
What you get out of this equation is your BMI, which has several ranges that indicate if you have normal weight, overweight, or suffer from obesity.
Which are:
Below 18.5 underweight
18.5-24.9 normal.
25-29.9 overweight.
More than 30 obesity.
What makes it critical and serious is that nowadays, there’s a high percentage of the whole population living with obesity, which’s catastrophic knowing that a large segment of this percentage indicates youth and children.
Aside from the health issues, try to imagine the amount of bullying these kids face every day because of the apparent symptom which could not be hidden.
Symptoms of Obesity
It’s evident and apparent, there’re no much more symptoms to discuss, but there’re other ways to diagnose obesity.
Knowing that the BMI is not accurate enough, as it’s just a relation between the body’s height and weight, though some athletes could have it high within the obesity range, while they are totally fine and healthy, due to their high muscle mass.
Therefore, a more accurate test could be one of the following:
– Waist-to-hip comparison
– CT scan, MRI scan
– Blood tests (to examine cholesterol and Diabetes)
– Liver function test
– Thyroid test
– Heart tests
– Diabetes test
It’s always better to measure body fats and their distribution all around the body to get an accurate outcome.
Causes of Obesity
Causes could be explained in just one sentence, which is “you receive more calories more than you burn.”
Moreover, some causes of obesity are not about the calories intake rate only; it also has some natural reasons that we don’t have something to do about.
– Genetics
– Pregnancy: Sometimes, it’s hard to lose the pregnancy weight after delivery.
– Growing older: which could lead to a slower metabolic rate. Through this period, many diseases could be threatening the elderly life known by the geriatric diseases. If you want to know more about this period you can check this article.
On the other side, some causes of obesity are due to our unhealthy lifestyle, mainly consuming a lot of junk food and meals rich in carbs and fats.
Also, not having enough sleep could be one of the leading causes of obesity, as it could lead to a certain hormonal change that will make you feel hungry.
In addition to some health conditions that indirectly could be causes of obesity, such like:
– Polycystic ovary syndrome: an imbalance through female reproductive hormones.
– Cushing syndrome: when the cortisol levels in a body are higher than average.
– Hypothyroidism: an inactive thyroid.
And any health condition that meant to decrease individual activity could be one of the causes of obesity. For instance, growing old could be a major reason concerning obesity, it’s when a home nursing service could be asked from 7keema.
Otherwise, some risk factors could develop to be causes of obesity, from which we can mention:
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Genes:
It’s written into our genes how our bodies consume calories and distribute fats, which’s sometimes could cause a gain of weight and is considered one of the main causes of obesity.
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How do you live? Lifestyle:
It’s directly connected with our lifestyles, especially how we eat and provide our bodies calories daily.
Junk food, high-calorie meals, lack of fruits and vegetables, and large portions would eventually lead to weight gain.
Beverages are one of the main causes of obesity, as it’s full of calories while you’re not feeling full, so you keep eating and consuming more calories all along the day.
Moreover, not doing any physical activity is a significant factor, as working out and sports, in general, are huge calories consumer.
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Age:
In general, it doesn’t have a certain age to happen.
However, while getting older, it’s usually when the individual couldn’t be as active as he used to be.
Also, some hormonal changes could take place through this period and cause obesity.
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Quitting Smoking:
Ironically, this could be one of the causes of obesity.
This is not an invitation to keep smoking, not at all; we only explain how we unconsciously act.
For instance, when a smoker quits, he could head to consume more food with high calories to compensate for this daily habit, trying to keep his mouth occupied all the time.
Although, it’s still the right thing to do, and with some effort and meals arrangement, obesity could be avoided.
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Stress:
Being stressed is something we are subjected to due to life requirements.
But caution, do not compensate for this feeling by eating more high-calorie meals; it’s the easy way to gain weight and suffer from some serious symptoms, and even feel more stressed.
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Former tries of losing weight:
Yes, you read it right.
It’s known that gaining weight after losing it would lead to even more weight gain than before. It’s known as the yo-yo dieting.
These factors are just factors; it doesn’t mean that there’s no way out from obesity. It could all be fixed by a suitable lifestyle.
Complications
It is not just some symptoms; it’s a source of many other diseases and health conditions.
– Heart diseases and strokes: it could lead to some problems through the heart, affects the blood pressure, which you could know more about through this article, and lead to strokes.
– Diabetes type 2: it could affect the main insulin job in the body, which would lead to diabetes type 2. If you want to know more about diabetes types, causes, and symptoms, you can check this article.
– Cancer: as we said, it could lead to some more serious symptoms and diseases; cancer is a danger here—especially uterus, breast, ovary, colon, liver, and more.
– Sexual problems: obesity could cause fertility problems for both men and women.
– COVID-19 severe symptoms: it’s more likely to need intensive care if obese than normal-weight in case of infection. If you want to know more about the COVID-19, check this article.
However, home nursing now can provide suitable care at home with all the devices needed. Check this article to know how to choose a home nursing service.
Prevention
Face the symptom with courage is a good start.
Causes of obesity are, at the same time, the key to avoid it.
What we’re going to say here, is what would be the everyday life of any individual even if he doesn’t suffer from obesity.
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Exercise: even if it’s just walking, you cannot imagine how an hour of walking per day could be helpful in your body.
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Eat healthy: avoid junk food as much as you can, eat a meal full of fruits and vegetables, healthily take your protein needs. And get yourself a cheating day as a treat.
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Control your mood swings: don’t go and have a high-calorie meal when you’re upset or feeling good as a celebration.
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Always track: monitoring your weight periodically is an important thing to know whether you’re doing good or not.
