causes of overweight
overweight problem eating habitsThe Causes of Overweight and Obesity There are several significant causes of overweight and obesity, including genetics, nutritional and sedentary causes. Genetic Causes Genetics play a major role in overweight and obesity. Scientific consensus is emerging that body weight is about 70 percent determined by inheritance. Adopted children, for example, tend to resemble the weight of their biological parents more than their adopted parents.
Exactly how genes control body weight is not known, but the resting metabolic rate, which is the amount of energy we expend at rest, and the metabolic energy we expend after a meal are about 70 percent determined by our genes. Food and beverage intake, selection of specific food items, and how full we feel after eating may all be at least partially determined genetically. Genetic inheritance, however, does not fully explain obesity, nor the rapidly increasing weight of millions of Americans. Genes are remarkably stable; we have essentially the same genes as our caveman ancestors.
So why are we getting fatter? Here, almost all obesity experts agree: We are fatter because our access to food, the types of food we eat and our activity patterns have all changed in the wrong direction. eating to much of the wrong kinds of fat eating to much of the wrong kids of fat Our genes don’t make us fat, but they do make us susceptible to gaining weight, in an environment that makes gaining weight easy. Nutritional Causes Americans today are eating more calories than ever before, as indicated by statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): It’s no mystery why Americans are gaining more weight: we are eating more calories. Specifically, we are eating more carbohydrates, mostly as refined grains, added sugars, and sweeteners; and we are still eating too much of the wrong kinds of fat – animal and trans fats. All of this may lead to premature death.
Another nutritional cause of obesity is that we eat out more often than we used to. About 50 percent of food spending today is spent on food eaten away from home. Eating out contributes to a higher intake of added fats and carbohydrates. Further, the intake of fruits, vegetables and milk is lower when eating out. Seventy-five percent of students ages 11-18 eat in a fast-food restaurant each week. Sedentary Causes Our epidemic weight gain is caused not only by excess consumption of calories, but also by our relative lack of physical activity. A major culprit in the promotion of sedentary behavior is time spent in front of the television and computers. One-fourth of Americans reported no leisure-time physical activity in 2002; in Texas it's 29.3 percent. Forty-eight percent of American high-school students are not enrolled in physical education classes; in Texas, the measure is 52 percent. Current research indicates that the greatest weight loss occurs through a combination of increased physical activity and decreased calorie intake.
To maintain weight loss, research indicates that it is absolutely essential to increase activity. The Cost of Obesity The estimated cost of obesity to Texans is $10.2 billion per year, of which $4.1 billion is for health care and $6.1 billion from lost productivity. A large portion of this cost is paid by federal and state funds. In addition, cities and counties pay an additional tax through the costs of maintaining municipal and county hospitals and clinics that treat obesity-related problems. Individuals also pay out-of-pocket expenses for medical care. On average, overweight individuals pay almost $400 more per year in medical expenses than people of healthy weight. Copyright 2006 United Way