According to the World Health Organization (WHO) obesity and or being overweight (see the difference between obesity and overweight), is an alarming factor that affects the health of all the people concerned and hence the global population. There are approximately 1.9 billion individuals who are overweight, out of which 600 million are obese. WHO states that there are 41 million kids, under the age of 5 who are overweight. I will discuss extensively in this article some hidden causes of obesity you probably did not know about before.
Obesity is considered to be one of the leading causes of the world’s mortality rate.
Those people, who make it a point to keep their weight in check, try almost anything and everything to maintain it. They look for solutions on the internet and follow them blindly. But, they are still unaware of the effects that those things have on their body.
Hidden Causes of Obesity You Didn’t Know
1. Anti – depressant’s: being open about one’s mental health is not easy. Along with which comes the medications. Yes, the medications may be helping them to sooth their inner demons, but the effect that it has on their body is rather harmful. These anti – depressant’s make an average of 1 out 4, people gain about 10 pounds which is equal to 4.5 kgs.
2. Artificial Sweeteners: all the promises of no added sweeteners in food and beverage products, need to be ignored. As, all these products increase the craving for sweet food; by tricking the brains’ reward centre.
3. Endocrine Disrupters: the human body consists of a lot of hormones, these hormones help in the regulation of our metabolism and hence the maintenance of our weight. Due to issues such as – hypothyroidism, diabetes, PCOD, hypoglycemia etc., there are fluctuations that happen in the body, making people gain weight.
4. Diet/Low-Fat Food: all the food products that are labeled as ‘low-fat” are not exactly stripped of all their fats. They still tend to contain a lot of sugar and calories. Now, calories along with sugar, make people gain weight; as they settle in the body and are a lot more difficult to get rid of.
5. Too Much Exercise: this is not something that people are used to hearing. But, do not worry there is a proper explanation for this point. Exercising with proper supervision, for 30 minutes helps you lose weight. But working out for more than that releases certain hormones that make you feel hungrier and increase your craving for sweet food.
6. Ignoring Hunger: remember when our parents always used to make sure that we ate at the right time? All the times that they would call us and make sure that we ate? That was all for good reason. It is said that ignoring your hunger makes your body store fat and reduce your metabolism. In turn, making us gain weight. Which is why eating at the right time, the right amount and the accurate quantity is very important. Of course, eating too much makes you put on weight too.
7. Stress: stress is something that should never be trifled with. It is a vicious cycle. When a person is stressed, their body tends to secrete a hormone called, cortisol. This hormone makes the individual feel as though they are in danger and preps the body to go into a back – up starvation mode. Hence, increasing the food intake.
8. Sleep Cycle: it has been noticed, that those individuals who are sleep deprived tend to binge a lot on food, as they do not get enough or no sleep. This tends to happen due to the loss of the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) that makes the individual feel a lot more tired and hungry as the hormones are affected.
This helps us understand as to why we gain weight while we’re doing everything that we can to make our look and feel healthier. Though, these are only a few factors that are a lot more if you pay close attention to what your body is telling you and how it reacts with the situation that it is in and with the food that it is provided with. Always be on the lookout folks! These things could actually kill you if you aren’t careful.
Here is a detailed Infographic you can learn more about causes of obesity from
