In recent years, the lifestyle of individuals is negatively affecting their health. According to a research article by WHO, 60% of factors affecting health and quality of life, are directly related to an unhealthy lifestyle.
Many people, nowadays, live an unhealthy lifestyle. As a result, they face serious health issues, one of which is obesity. It is a major cause of many other diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, and hypertension, etc.
Why is obesity the underlying cause of such serious health issues? This can be understood by knowing the term OBESITY.
What is obesity?
Accumulation of an excessive amount of fat in the body is known as obesity. This fat clogs the major arteries and deposits on organs. These fat deposits in the body lead to hypertension, heart problems, and diabetes mellitus.
Obesity and Body Mass Index (BMI)
Obesity is associated with a high Body Mass Index value. It is diagnosed when Body Mass Index (BMI) is 30 or more.
To find out the Body Mass Index, your weight, in kilogram) is divided by the square of your height (in meters). It is a fast way to know whether a person has too much body fat.
The normal BMI score is 20 to 24.5. You will be considered overweight if your BMI score is 25 to 29.9. BMI value under 20 is considered underweight.
Lifestyle factors that lead towards obesity
Obesity is the result of genetic factors, in combination with environmental factors. Lifestyle choices, like diet and exercise, also matter a lot in this regard. Here are some unhealthy lifestyle choices that contribute to obesity.
- Not sleeping enough
Studies show that if you deprived yourself of sleep, it increases your appetite. Because if the body is not getting enough sleep, it releases the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger. That is the reason, people who don’t sleep enough are obese.
- Physical inactive
If you exercise regularly but spend most of your time sitting, you are at high risk of being obese. The reason is long periods of physical inactivity negatively affect the metabolism.
Size of the portion you eat
If you consume more calories than you burn, you’ll have a high Body Mass Index value and develop obesity. But if you eat a small portion of the meal, you will consume fewer calories. You will not gain weight in this way.
Consuming sugary drinks
Sugary drinks do not fill you up and you eat more to satisfy your appetite. So, you develop obesity.
Eating junk food
A large number of calories in junk food cause weight gain. This ends up in obesity. Junk food also includes all the processed food such as canned food and crackers. These food items are less satisfying than foods include in a healthy and balanced diet.
Stress
Stress releases the hormone cortisol which is known as the fat-storing hormone. It also triggers a craving for sugary and fatty food. So, with high levels of stress, you’ll have a large waist size.
Less exercising
Experts recommend 30 min exercise daily to lose weight. Exercising also helps you losing weight even if you are genetically prone to weight gain.
But if you have this problem, don’t be upset because even a slight weight loss can improve the medical condition associated with obesity.
There is so much you can do to lose weight, such as:
- Opting for a healthy diet plan
- Adding physical activity in daily routine
- Behavioral changes
If the above changes didn’t help, there are some medication and weight-loss procedures which can help.
So, you can maintain your ideal body weight by balancing healthy food consumption and calories needed by the body. Always chose a healthy lifestyle option to avoid complex diseases like obesity which is linked to other serious health conditions.
