Obesity

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Contents

Basics

  • Obesity can be:
    1. Android
      • apple-shaped
      • fat around the waist and upper abdomen
      • aka abdominal obesity
    2. Gynoid
      • pear-shaped
      • excessive fat around the thighs and buttocks
  • It is specifically android that increases the risk for the diseases
  • Visceral fatness as a risk factor for several common chronic diseases


Factors in obesity

Genetic

  • Obesity is inherited in some families
  • specific genes are not well characterized
  • Presumably these affect energy intake and expenditure
  • There may be a relationship between hunger, satiety, fat metabolism and leptin (the product of the ob gene)
  • Leptin may become an important target for new therapies for diabetes, especially in overweight persons
  • The metabolism of adipose tissue could be genetically affected

Other Factors

  • Eating behaviour is complicated and multifactorial

Psychological

  • Appetite and our response to it is a learned behaviour
  • Similar for satiety
  • The palatability and preferences we have for food are also learned
  • Mood or sense of well-being can significantly affect eating behaviour
  • Bored or depressed individuals can overeat or may be uninterested in food

Physiological

  • Learning depends on subjective responses to many neurotransmitters and hormones that affect hunger, taste, gastric emptying etc.

Lifestyle

  • Alcohol intake or cessation of smoking are associated with obesity
  • Obesity in children, whether due to genetics or inactivity is associated with obesity in adulthood and with consequent health risks

Economic

  • obesity is commoner in societies where food is plentiful and cheap
  • associated with lower economic status in those societies

Sociological

  • eating out is endemic in obese societies
  • may promote lack of good nutritional practices (meal preparation, education).

Resources

Retrieved from "http://www.tarek.org/wiki/Obesity"
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