Key points
- Detecting the factors that predispose us to suffering from obesity is of vital importance to take control over our habits.
- Losing weight should be taken as a health exercise with multiple long-term benefits.
- Avoiding fatphobia is also key to stop targeting people who are overweight or obese.
Although for many years we have been taught that being thin is the only thing that is socially accepted at the anatomical level, it is necessary to review this concept since for some people not being thin is a reason for discrimination and even ridicule.
Obesity must be approached from a health perspective and not from an aesthetic point of view that lowers people’s self-esteem making the path to losing weight more difficult.
Numerous conditions can be aggravated not only because of obesity, but also because of the lifestyle that each person adopts in their daily lives. However, people who are overweight or obese have shown a greater predisposition to conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer.
In general, obesity is the result of social, physiological and environmental factors, combined with the type of diet and the lack of physical activity, the latter under the belief that people who start exercising should achieve perfect bodies and fit to rigorous diets, when, on the contrary, it is about eating healthy and balanced accompanied by physical activity or exercise without necessarily having to go to the gym for many hours.
An example of how obesity has escalated among people is the pandemic, where many people increased their levels of sedentary lifestyle by having less physical demands, which is why the number of calories they burned were not the same as those they probably they would spend on a day commuting to work.
Although, it must be emphasized that, even before the pandemic, “comforts” such as escalators, online commerce and delivery service have led the population to reduce the number of steps per day that previously maintained a bit of dynamism in their lives. body.
In this way, the causes that lead us to develop obesity are infinite, even stress can be a condition by altering our metabolism, however, there are important conditions that we must pay attention to:
Cerebrovascular accidents: cerebrovascular disease (CVD) refers to all those cerebral alterations of vascular origin. Its acute manifestation is known by the term ICTUS —in Latin it means “blow”— because its presentation is usually sudden. Having high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol levels are risk factors for heart disease or stroke.
Type 2 diabetes: Obesity can affect the way the body uses insulin to control blood glucose levels, increasing the chance of developing diabetes.
Certain cancers: Obesity can increase the risk of cancer of the uterus, cervix, endometrium, ovaries, breast, colon, rectum, esophagus, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidney, and prostate.
Digestive problems: This contributes to the development of heartburn, gallbladder disease, and liver problems.
Sleep apnea is a potentially serious disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.
Osteoarthritis: due to the pressure exerted on the joints, inflammation in the body increases, aggravating episodes of osteoarthritis.
Severe COVID-19 symptoms: People with severe COVID-19 may require treatment in intensive care units or even mechanical assistance for breathing.
