Factors Affecting Obesity

Factors Affecting Obesity There is no single reason why a person is overweight. Generally, there may be even two or three factors that, when added together, make it difficult for an individual to achieve and then maintain a healthy weight. Environmental factors and stress take their toll every day. A person under stress is more likely to attempt to relieve that tension by over-eating, for example. If a person lives in a location where it is not easy to walk or run at the end of the day, this inhibits their ability to exercise. Habits, behaviors and emotions also play a role. Lets say that it is your habit to drink a can of Pepsi while you play games on your computer, or snack on chips in front of the TV. It is difficult to break habits once theyve become engrained. Eating habits are perhaps the most difficult factor to overcome. In this context, eating habits doesnt mean that you snack while you watch TV, but your habit of always using butter when you cook as opposed to olive oil, or whole milk instead of skim milk, or having a gigantic hamburger instead of a healthy salad for lunch. Physiological and psychological factors are an important part of the obesity problem. If you have a physical difficulty which doesnt allow you to exercise on a regular basis, you must control your weight strictly by watching what you eat. As for psychological factors, many people sublimate their stress by eating comfort food. If they have low self-esteem, or a lack of confidence, they may eat more. Its kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. People eat too much because they lack self-esteem, but as they gain weight their self-esteem falls even more, so they eat yet more food. Poor coping skills play a role in this lack of self-esteem. Rather than setting and achieving goals to enhance ones self esteem, individuals may simply give up and refuse to cope at all, using food as their emotional crutch. All these factors, however, once they are completely recognized by the individual, can be taken into account and dealt with in a variety of ways, so that the individual can then gain control of his or her life, and get that life back under control.

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