In this episode we address some of the reasons why people become obese and equally what you can do to lose and control your weight.  Because it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you are at an ideal weight you will feel better, be healthier and overall your welfare is going to be substantially increased.

There isn’t just one cause of the obesity epidemic and that’s why it’s so difficult to manage the problem. We know that there are several different common factors that all play a part.

Portion Sizes

We’ve noticed a trend over the last 10 or 20 years where portion sizes have got a lot bigger. We see this in all of our fast food and take away restaurants where what used to be a large is now considered a small or a regular size and we’re always encouraged to go one size higher or supersize me, as they say. And we also see this in restaurants as well we also see this in our supermarkets where it’s buy one get one free or 33% off all of these offers encourage the consumer to buy more than they actually need.

Processed Foods

Processed foods are more likely to add to the obesity epidemic rather than raw foods because of how calorie dense they are. So, for the amount that they fill you up, there’s a lot more calories than in fruit and vegetables. And there’s also other preservatives and in particular, salt that encourages you to go back to eating those foods because they taste so nice and perhaps even drink more as well, and not everybody drinks water or diet drinks so that every time that you’re drinking a high calorie sugary drink that’s more empty calories that’s going into your body.  

The role of genetics

The general public believes that it’s entirely down to their genes as to why one generation after another in the same family are always going to be overweight or obese. When in actual fact we know that there are learned behaviours that you develop. If say for example your parents were of the habit of eating too much, of eating the wrong things or not exercising enough and their parents were the same, then it’s likely that you might learn that behavior from them and some of your weight might be explained by that.

The Thyroid Gland

There are several metabolic conditions that you have to look out for when a patient presents with weight problems. The most common one of these is an underactive thyroid or hypothyroidism. This is a condition that affects the main gland that sits in the neck that controls your whole metabolism and this is the one the patient refers to when he says, “it’s my glands doctor”. This can be identified with a straight forward blood test that comes back within a matter of a day or two and is very easily treated. Once treated there’s no way why those patients, as part of a calorie controlled diet with exercise can’t lose weight in the same way that anybody without a thyroid problem could lose weight.

There are many people who feel that they can’t lose weight or perhaps don’t want to lose weight. That’s up to them but let’s all be aware of the fact that obesity is a risk factor for many other diseases which can make your life more difficult and even shorten it. And that alone, to my mind is a powerful reason for wanting to lose weight.

Date posted: 27/01/2009