In addressing your obesity problem you need to first determine and understand the causes of obesity. Then tailor a plan that meets your particular needs.

NOTE: Care should be taken to set realistic goals and timelines for achieving weight loss.

Causes of Obesity

Your weight is influenced by your calorie-intake. That is, how much calories your body utilizes and how much it stores. Your calorie utilization rate will depend on your genetics, the level of intensity of your physical activity, and how much calories you use up during rest.

If your body utilizes all of the calories that you consume in the course of the day, your weight will remain constant. When you consume more calories than your body actually utilizes, you WILL gain weight.

Therefore if you decrease your calorie intake, or increase your physical activity, or a combination of both, your body will then utilize some of your stored fat, resulting in weight loss.

The Causes of Obesity include:

A Sedentary Lifestyle

This is one of the more common causes and is characterized by a lack of adequate physical activity.

Our fast paced lifestyle and environment with its abundance of fast-food restaurants, with their high-calorie foods, makes it so convenient for us to overeat, and eventually end up being overweight or obese.

Also, most of us don't get adequate physical exercise. Even our work is often sedentary in nature with many of us holding desk jobs.

To complicate matters even more,many of us commute long distances to and from work. Then we still have to tackle family and household responsibilities. This leaves us with very little time for any physical exercise or sport. Being exhausted, relaxing in front of the TV now becomes our regular form of leisure activity.

Genetic Factors

Some of us are predisposed through genetics to being slender, while others are predisposed to be obese. This genetic predisposition is further influenced by our lack of adequate physical exercise, and/or our over-consumption of high-calorie foods.

Metabolic and Hormonal Factors

Metabolic factors could also influence our weight. Some of us have a slow metabolism which burns calories more slowly and predisposes us to increased fat storage. Other people, having a faster metabolism, quickly burn up calories resulting in fewer calories being stored as fat.

Hormonal causes of obesity, are very rare.

Psychological Factors

Psychological and emotional causes such as stress, anxiety or depression could increase our tendency to over eat. Being overweight or obese and being self-conscious of it leaves us under constant stress or frustration. This may explain why so many obese people also suffer from depression, anxiety or eating disorders.

Also, many of us, when dealing with stress or emotional problems, tend to use food and overeating as stress relievers. This only serves to further exacerbate our problem.

Socioeconomic Factors

Socioeconomic circumstances can also influence obesity since obesity is more frequent in a low socioeconomic community, than in a more affluent community. This is because affluent individuals often have the financial resources and time to benefit from the best weight loss programs and products.

The degree to which the genetic, environmental, socioeconomic, and psychological causes of obesity influence our weight varies from individual to individual. For some of us, genetics is predominant, for others it's one or more of the other causes that are predominant.

Back to top of Causes of Obesity Page