When is obesity caused

Start with your primary care physician , who may be able to refer you to a weight specialist in your area. Your doctor may also want to work with you as part of a team helping you lose weight. That team might include a dietitian , therapist , or other healthcare staff.

Your doctor will work with you on making needed lifestyle changes. Sometimes, they may recommend medications or weight loss surgery as well. Learn more about treatment for obesity. Your healthcare team can educate you on food choices and help develop a healthy eating plan that works for you. A structured exercise program and increased daily activity — up to minutes a week — will help build up your strength, endurance , and metabolism. Counseling or support groups may also identify unhealthy triggers and help you cope with any anxiety, depression, or emotional eating issues.

Your doctor may also prescribe certain prescription weight loss medications in addition to eating and exercise plans.

Prescription weight loss medications either prevent the absorption of fat or suppress appetite. These drugs can have unpleasant side effects. For example, orlistat can lead to oily and frequent bowel movements, bowel urgency, and gas. This type of surgery works by limiting how much food you can comfortably eat or by preventing your body from absorbing food and calories.

Sometimes it can do both. Afterward, people who undergo surgery will need to change how they eat and how much they eat, or they risk getting sick. For decades, experts recommended that adult candidates for weight loss surgery have a BMI of at least For individuals with class 1 obesity, surgery is most effective for those between the ages of 18 and 65 years old.

People will often have to lose some weight before undergoing surgery. Only a few surgical centers in the United States perform these types of procedures on children under 18 years old.

This is the reason why communities, states, and the federal government are putting an emphasis on healthier food choices and activities to help turn the tide on obesity. On a personal level, you can help prevent weight gain and obesity by making healthier lifestyle choices:.

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Treating obesity is complex. They also rely on their cars, rather than walking or cycling. For relaxation, many people tend to watch TV, browse the internet or play computer games, and rarely take regular exercise.

If you're not active enough, you do not use the energy provided by the food you eat, and the extra energy you consume is stored by the body as fat. The Department of Health and Social Care recommends that adults do at least minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, such as cycling or fast walking, every week.

This does not need to be done all in a single session, but can be broken down into smaller periods. For example, you could exercise for 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week. If you're obese and trying to lose weight , you may need to do more exercise than this.

It may help to start off slowly and gradually increase the amount of exercise you do each week. Some people claim there's no point trying to lose weight because "it runs in my family" or "it's in my genes".

While there are some rare genetic conditions that can cause obesity, such as Prader-Willi syndrome , there's no reason why most people cannot lose weight. It may be true that certain genetic traits inherited from your parents — such as having a large appetite — may make losing weight more difficult, but it certainly does not make it impossible.

In many cases, obesity is more to do with environmental factors, such as poor eating habits learned during childhood. However, if conditions such as these are properly diagnosed and treated, they should pose less of a barrier to weight loss.

Usually, obesity results from inherited, physiological and environmental factors, combined with diet, physical activity and exercise choices.

The good news is that even modest weight loss can improve or prevent the health problems associated with obesity. A healthier diet, increased physical activity and behavior changes can help you lose weight. Prescription medications and weight-loss procedures are additional options for treating obesity.

Body mass index BMI is often used to diagnose obesity. To calculate BMI , multiply weight in pounds by , divide by height in inches and then divide again by height in inches. Or divide weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. Asians with BMI of 23 or higher may have an increased risk of health problems. For most people, BMI provides a reasonable estimate of body fat. However, BMI doesn't directly measure body fat, so some people, such as muscular athletes, may have a BMI in the obesity category even though they don't have excess body fat.

Many doctors also measure a person's waist circumference to help guide treatment decisions. Weight-related health problems are more common in men with a waist circumference over 40 inches centimeters and in women with a waist measurement over 35 inches 89 centimeters. If you're concerned about your weight or weight-related health problems, ask your doctor about obesity management. You and your doctor can evaluate your health risks and discuss your weight-loss options.

Although there are genetic, behavioral, metabolic and hormonal influences on body weight, obesity occurs when you take in more calories than you burn through normal daily activities and exercise. Your body stores these excess calories as fat. In the United States, most people's diets are too high in calories — often from fast food and high-calorie beverages.

People with obesity might eat more calories before feeling full, feel hungry sooner, or eat more due to stress or anxiety. Many people who live in Western countries now have jobs that are much less physically demanding, so they don't tend to burn as many calories at work. Even daily activities use fewer calories, courtesy of conveniences such as remote controls, escalators, online shopping and drive-through banks. The genes you inherit from your parents may affect the amount of body fat you store, and where that fat is distributed.

Genetics may also play a role in how efficiently your body converts food into energy, how your body regulates your appetite and how your body burns calories during exercise. Obesity tends to run in families. That's not just because of the genes they share.

Family members also tend to share similar eating and activity habits. In some people, obesity can be traced to a medical cause, such as Prader-Willi syndrome, Cushing syndrome and other conditions.