What is obesity?
Obesity is the condition of being grossly fat or overweight
What causes obesity?
The following habits have been identified
and proven to be major causes of the sickly, health threatening condition of
obesity.
Watching TV:
TV watching for prolonged hours is a strong predictor for
obesity. Recent research has proved that people who watch around two hours of
TV a day are much more likely to be overweight than those who watched only half
an hour each day. When you watch TV you are virtually motionless thus your
heart rate, blood pressure and metabolic rate decline, resulting in burning 20
to 30 calories less every hour. Research by Harvard University has showed that
there is a link between the amount children eat and the amount of television
they watch.
Eating Too Fast: This is habit of many people living in fast
paced societies. Eating fast lets you eat too much before you are fully aware
of it. The human brain takes about 15-20 minutes to start signaling feelings of
satisfaction. Scientists suppose that fast eating is a risk factor for the
metabolic syndrome which is a combination of the symptoms such as high blood pressure, obesity, and insulin
resistance.
Task Snacking:
This is eating while
doing other activities. Say eating snacks while working front of your computer,
driving, watching TV, and standing at the kitchen counter, shopping with a
friend, or talking on the phone. Task snacking style is increases your chances of
becoming obese.
Passion for Fast Food:
One of the greatest reasons we are seeing more obesity in
our society today is that we are too stressed and busy to make healthy dinners
in our homes. We thus opt for fast food at the nearest drive which compromises
the quality of the healthy meal choices. In the fast foods is a high content of
saturated and trans-fat, lack of fiber, and massive portion sizes, which lead
to obesity.
Eating to Manage Feelings:
Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large
quantities of food usually comfort or junk, in response to feelings of depression,
anxiety, or loneliness, instead of hunger.
Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by
emotions. How many times have you found yourself scouring the kitchen for a
snack, or absently munching on junk food when you're stressed, but not really
hungry?
Lack of Physical Exercise:
With all the demands on your schedule, exercise may be one
of the last things on your to-do list. If so, you're not alone. Americans live
a more sedentary lifestyle than we have in past generations, yet our minds seem
to be racing from everything we have to do. Unfortunately, from sitting in
traffic, clocking hours at our desks, and plopping in front of the TV in
exhaustion at the end of the day, exercise often goes by the wayside.
Friends’ influence can make You Obese:
If you're putting on
weight, you might want to take a look at who you're hanging around with. A
study published in the July 26, 2007 edition of the New England Journal of
Medicine suggests that obesity may be "socially contagious." The
study was conducted on more than 12,000 people over 32 years, and concluded
that having an overweight friend, sibling or spouse increased one's risk of
obesity by 37 to 57 percent.
Lack of Sleep:
Sleep deprivation can increase your risk of obesity by
boosting ghrelin (an appetite stimulating hormone) and lowering leptin (an
appetite suppressor). The study5 from the University of Bristol in the United
Kingdom found that, compared to an eight hours of shut-eye, each one-hour
decrease in sleep duration was linked to almost 3% more body fat.
Calories value ignorance:
Many people eat with no idea of
the calorie or fat value. This leads to weight gain because you can easily
consume twice the normal amount required to maintain your weight, let alone
lose weight, if you don't know how many calories you are consuming.
Use of Credit Cards:
Your plastic may be affecting more than just your credit
score. Visa conducted a study of 100,000 fast-food restaurant transactions and
found that people who pay for their food with a credit card spend 30% more than
those who pay with cash. For the average woman, who visits a fast-food
restaurant once a week, that adds an extra 4.9 pounds per year.
Missing Meals:
Research shows that people who eat breakfast are less likely
to be overweight, and that mornings meals seem to help those who've lost weight
keep it off. Denise Bruner, MD, obesity specialist and former president of the
American Society of Bariatric Physicians, says that skipping meals of any kind
results in a "tremendous bout of compensatory hunger."
Uncomfortable Clothing:
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse6
found that casual and comfortable clothing workdays promote increased physical
activity. Specifically, study participants took an average of 491 (or 8%) more
steps on Jeans Day than on those days in which they wore normal business
attire. It is also estimated that study participants burned an average of 25
additional calories on Jeans Day with the extra steps and miles walked. Wearing
casual clothing every day for 50 weeks of work translates into burning an
additional 6,250 calories per year.
Neglecting Scales:
A recent study from
the University of Minnesota found that people who weighed themselves daily lost
about 12 pounds over two years, while those who never did shed only four
pounds. Other research, published in The New England Journal of Medicine,
concluded that those who have daily weigh-ins (along with face-to-face support)
are 82% less likely to regain five pounds than a control group without
weigh-ins or support.
Boredom:
In the survey by the Priory Group in the U.K. found that
more people ate when bored than when stressed.
Appeal:-Friend, watch the way you carry yourself, for your life is very precious. Guard it against the unhealthy practices.
Source: Click here
No comments:
Post a Comment