Obesity is one of the most common contemporary problems. In Europe approximately 30% to 80% of adults and 20% of children struggles with it. It is disturbing, especially overweight is connected with higher risk of many diseases. It is worth knowing factors influencing obesity growth.
Overweight And Obesity
Due to Word Health Organization, both obesity and overweight characterized by building up fat tissue in organism. It is caused by storing to much energy in our body, more than we are able to use in everyday life. It is dangerous, especially that consequences of obesity are health disorders and general organism aggravation.
There are two main ways of diagnosing this disorder. The first is diagnosing by BMI index. When in is above 25 points but under 30 we are dealing with overweight. And when it is above 30 and more, it indicates obesity.
Other way of diagnosing, is measuring waist size. Maximal “healthy” waist seize for woman is 88 cm, and for men 102 cm. To protect ourselves from danger of obesity complications its worth knowing factors, that may cause we are in one of increased risk group.
Biological Risk Factors
One of biological factors is gens influence. It appears that coefficient of heredity BMI index is approximately 0,18 to 0,35 which is not high rate. However it should be remembered that many diseases, which are connected with obesity, are much more probable to inherit.
Family Risk Factors
It appears, that both big weight of new-born child and underweight of premature babies may lead to obesity in childhood. Additional factor causing similar effects is smoking by pregnant mother. Other cause of obesity and overweight are stressful experiences such as physical or emotional violence, rejection and sexual abuse. Another factors are binging and lack of irregular meals.
Social Risk Factors
Risk factors which in many various researches correlates with obesity are:
- Low economic – social status, which may limit access to healthy food
- Living in cities, where products containing high amount of fat are more popular. (e.g. fast foods)
- Unemployment, connected with passive life style
- Low education level, which is connected with lack of health and dietary awareness
Very interesting research effect research effect is fact, that staying in marriage increases the risk of
obesity twice.
Emotional Risk Factors
To emotional risk factors increasing probability of obesity are:
- Lack of satisfaction from highly stressing work, and feeling of lack of control on performed tasks.
- Unsatisfactory family life
Pregnancy Risk Factors
It is quite often, that overweight starts after pregnancy. Of course the more weight you gain during pregnancy, the harder it is to come back to the output. That’s why it is so important to take care of not putting on weight too much. Ideal weight indexes, showing how much you can put on weight during pregnancy are:
- For women with BMI under 19 – possible weight increase is 12-19 kg
- When BMI is less than 25 – increase of 11 – 16 is something you shouldn’t worry about
- In case of overweight you can put on weight around 6,8 – 11 kg
- In case of obesity weight increase should be less than 6,8
If You Are In Risk Group…
If you can identify many of below factors as part of your life, it indicates that you are in risk increased group. In this case you should pay more attention of what and how you eat. It is worth remembering, that risk factors don’t forejudge about obesity, but only increase its probability. You can avoid it by proper actions.