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Why Do People Become Overweight and Even Obese?
 

The main purpose of consuming food is to live. A variety of food is getting into our stomach for various purposes. Our body will use protein in the food to regenerate lean tissue and will convert carbohydrate into energy or fat to protect organs. Any surplus of food that is not used by the body will be converted into extra fat that will be placed in places like liver cells, muscle cells and heart cells.

Overweight and obesity are not just the problem for high-income countries but also have become an issue for low- and middle-income countries. According to World Health Organization (WHO), worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2008, 1.5 billion adults aged 20 and above were overweight, and in 2010, nearly 43 million children under the age of 5 were overweight.

Scientists have already proven that overweight and obesity are linked to many chronic diseases including Type-2 diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke and even certain types of cancer. Being fifth leading risk for global deaths, overweight and obesity are responsible for the death of more than 2.8 million adults every year. Statistics also showed that 44 percent of the diabetes burden, 23 percent of the ischaemic heart disease burden and between 7 and 14 percent of certain cancer burdens are caused by overweight and obesity.

The basic principle of overweight and obesity is the lack of energy balance between energy input from food and drinks and energy used by the body for things such as breathing, digesting and physical activity. If energy balance can be maintained, there will be no weight gain at all. But unfortunately for many people, the energy input is higher than energy output, and this is why people gain weight.

The 2 main culprits that are responsible for the energy imbalance are the adoption of inactive lifestyle and unhealthy diet.

Instead of doing physical exercise, most people, including children, spend long hours watching television programs and playing computer games. People rely more on cars instead of walking. With the evolution of modern technology, people require less physical demands at work and at home. Meanwhile, lack of neighborhood sidewalks and safe places for recreation and long working hours also prevent people from doing physical activity. For children, there are apparently no adequate physical education classes in schools for them to burn the extra calories.

When it comes to diet, most people prefer energy-dense foods that are high in fat, salt and sugar. Very often, these foods are also offered in oversized portions that can feed 2 or more people. Eating huge portions of food means energy input is very high and this would definitely cause weight gain if it were not balanced with adequate physical exercise.

In addition, there are other reasons that could lead to weight gain. For instance, a person’s genes can have a strong influence on his or her weight, and some hormone problems like underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism), Cushing's syndrome, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) might cause overweight and obesity. Certain medicines such as some corticosteroids, antidepressants, and seizure medicines could cause the takers gain weight.

As people get older, they tend to lose muscle especially if they are inactive. Muscle loss can slow down the rate at which the body burns calories. So if calorie intake is not reduced, weight gain is unavoidable.

Research has shown lack of sleep can cause weight gain too. In a study, scientists found that people who slept 5 hours a night are much more likely to become obese compared with people who slept 7 to 8 hours a night.

Obviously, overweight and obesity is preventable. People just need to maintain the energy balance to avoid weight gain. If people could eat more fresh fruits and vegetable instead of energy-dense food in moderate portion, allocate more time for physical exercises, have sufficient sleep, watch out and limit the dosage of medicines taken, there is no reason why we cannot prevent from gaining weight.

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