Causes of Obesity: Gender, Lifestyle, and Psychological Factors

This essay explores the multifaceted causes of obesity, a significant public health concern. It examines various contributing factors, including gender-based differences, lifestyle patterns, psychological disorders, and hereditary traits. The discussion highlights how changing lifestyles, including dietary habits and reduced physical activity, contribute to the rise of obesity. The essay also addresses the role of genetics, emphasizing how family history and genetic predispositions can influence an individual's susceptibility to weight gain. Furthermore, it considers the impact of psychological factors, such as depression and anxiety, on eating behaviors and weight management. The essay provides a comprehensive overview of the complex interplay of factors that lead to obesity and its related health issues.

Running head: CAUSES OF OBESITY
CAUSES OF OBESITY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
In the modern society, people are busy in succeeding in the modern world’s competition.
This has made them to ignore their health leading to a number of health issued in the society. In
this essay, one of the major health issue, which is a precursor to a number of health related
problems is discussed, Obesity. Obesity as defined by WHO, is when a person has a Body Mass
Index (BMI) of 30 or more (Who.int 2018). BMI is the weight to height ratio of in a person
expressed in kg/m². Obesity is one of the largest health related issues along with malnutrition.
Obesity has grown to be a major problem in the recent decades in a number of societies around
the word. Obesity though earlier not under stood as the major problem, but with the rising
population suffering from it has grown into one of the major issues faced by the society. It is not
just weight related problems but the number of diseases it related to and causes makes it a far
worse problem than imagined.
The aim of this essay is to discuss the various issues that is related to obesity and they are
gender based reasons, lifestyle patters, psychological disorders and hereditary traits. Therefore,
highlighting the possible causes of obesity meaning whether it is simply a matter of eating too
much and doing nothing or there is some other major causes as well.
Discussion
The growth of obesity through time has given rise to a number of diseases in the society
like diabetes, heart diseases and other chronic disorders (World Health Organization (WHO)
2017). There are many reasons for the growth of obesity in the society. One of the major reasons
in the changing lifestyle patterns of individuals through time. The changing patterns have made

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this a major issue in the society. The rise of obesity in the majority of the population is due to a
number of changes in the society. The lifestyle changes in the society today can be attributed as
one of the major reasons of the obesity issues (Wadden et al. 2012). The obesity problem cannot
be only attributed to the feeding patterns and the work schedule of a person. There are various
other contributing factors for the ever rising weight issues of the general population. Attributing
global obesity issues to a general eating and not working out problem does not do justice to the
cause of the issue. The body types, the feeding patterns and food one prefers also plays an
important role in underlining the issue of obesity in the general population (Hebebrand et al.
2014). The age group suffering from the issue also diversifies the factor of obesity problems in
the society.
Naukkarinen et al. (2012), through their study has stated that obesity is not only
influenced by lifestyle factors but also can be available with independent genetic tendencies.
Thus, this study has a distinctive experiment of nature where they have taken monozygotic twins
and stated that obesity is ‘clonal controls’ of obsess. Obesity can further be caused when people
consumed too much energy by eating too much but never burn out the energy though exercise or
physical activity.
Gender based issues are one of the major reason of obesity in the human population
today. The physiological differences between the male and the female bodies make it impossible
to generalize the topic of obesity. The diet and the calorific need are different among the males
and females making it difficult to formulate a generic term for obesity for the genders. The
causes of onset of obesity also vary among different genders (Tsai et al. 2016). There are a
number of treatable, untreatable problems that may cause a person to become obese other than

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their lifestyle, some of them may be common to all the genders, and some may be gender
specific.
One of the major causes of the obesity is the genetic factors, which stands true for both
men and women. The genetic issues that have come into light underlining the issue are the
families coming from backgrounds that have faced starvation as the body develops a propensity
to save and store fat and in the current scenario with the food easily available one cannot use all
fat that the body stores and the it starts to become fat. According to Wells, (2012), the human
body has shown a growing trend to store body fat in the post industrialization age due to work
schedules. Moreover, the increasing of emulsifiers and food using scientifically developed
tasting agents makes them tough to digest and use up in the body. Another reason of the growing
propensity of the deposition of fatty tissues in the body is the reduced use of the body strength in
the tasks today. The overuse of other habits like smoking and alcoholism in excess, exaggerates
the issue. Among females, one of the times when the fat deposition start is puberty and the
postnatal period. If the weight and the fat issues are not addressed during this age a general trend
of weight issues, develop among men. One of the major issues that have been seen as the cause
of rising obesity among children in the rise in the habit of people skipping breakfast and later
binge eating whenever hungry (Diwekar 2011). This habit also gives rise to a number of issues
among people. The ethnic diversity also plays a factor in the obesity issues. The bodies of
different ethnicities are often habituated to different kinds of meals and shifting between meal
times also causes a number of issues in the weight deposition among individuals (Batra, Strecher
and Keller 2015).
The life style of a person is the major cause of the rising obesity issues among the adults
in the present society. In the modern society the risks of obesity are high majorly due to the

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people following luxurious and sedentary lifestyles. This change can be traced to history to
notice the lifestyle changes of a person. The lifestyle of a person is defined as the way they live
their life, which is their eating schedule, sleeping schedule and the daily physical activity. The
changes in these can be traced to history. Earlier human population was more fit compared to
today as they had to labor for the food they got. The tremendous amount of physical labor they
had to do to sustain and meet their daily needs made them physically enduring. This trend
continued much after industrialization until the 1930s and 40s when the televisions were not
easily available and people had longer and harder work schedules. Majority of the changes in the
lifestyle of the people occurred due to the induction of the media in the lives of the people. The
media made the people more lethargic and addicted to in home entertainment rather than going
out to do physical interactions. The limitations in the lives of the people due to their over
dependent and a laid-back lifestyle led to a number of changes in the body’s physiology (Jones et
al. 2017). The change may not look so quick but in general it was a rather drastic change for a
body which is made for hard work for centuries. The changes in the lifestyle stared with the
excessive marketing of the socializing in front of the television in the early 1960s leading to the
reduced number of people going for outdoor activities. Another issue that caused a major change
in the lifestyle pattern was introduction of the concept of weekends and shorter working hours.
The change brought about a change in the working patterns of the people, making them more
lazy and sedentary. The social interaction changes among the people make them more and more
dependent on the virtual reality for the social interaction today. Moreover, most of the tasks
today are automated and the human population is using the help of tools to finish their daily
tasks. The overall changes in the society and the daily life schedule was not the only thing that
affected the schedule of the people. The shift in the feeding patterns of the people is another

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reason of the obesity issues. People have shifted to the use of fast foods is leading to a rising
pattern of the binge eating among the individuals. Another major issue that has been pointed out
by a number of dieticians is the usage of the alternative food regularly by the children, which
causes them to develop obesity and related issues from an early age.
According to Faulkner et al. (2014), there is a general trend among the people of
becoming obese due to the habit of eating unhealthy food and the constantly increasing portion
size. There has been a general increase in the portion size of the food an individual eats during
the meal which causes a greater number of calorific valued amount of food entering into their
system than they will expend in their daily lifestyle.
Genetics plays a very important role in the rising obesity among the people and there are
a number of theories linking obesity to genetics. The studies by Burgio, Lopomo, and Migliore,
(2015), suggest that the different genetic make-up of the person added to the lifestyle of the
people contributes to the constantly rising issues of obesity in the major population. Among
women, the majority of the issue is presented in the fact that that they have to undergo weight
issues post pregnancy. The pregnancy is one of the important times that they tend to gain weight.
As shown by Gunderson (2009), weight issues before and during pregnancy have an effect over
the postnatal weight gain. It is shown in the study that there has been a general trend of women
gaining more weight post-partum if they are overweight or obese. The theory is seconded by
Molyneaux et al. (2014), who say that there is a general increase in the number of women
suffering from obesity during pregnancy and post-partum. Thus, Parental obesity has a
potentially distinct genetic impact which is related to developmental programming of their
children.

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The weight issues in women are also a result of a number of weight changes that a person
undergoes through their life. The female morphology is very different from the males making
them more susceptible to gaining weight. In the present scenario, the sedentary lifestyle of the
children and the feeding patterns depending more of the frozen food and ready to eat meals
causes the children to develop a number of weight issues. The children on the other hand gain a
lot of weight in early age. According to Hohwü et al. (2014), there is a growing trend of obesity
among men because of prenatal stress and the maternal stress during pregnancy among women.
The study took into account 119,908 men born between 1976 and 1993 and found there was an
increasing trend among men who were born to stress women. The maternal bereavement was
attributed as the cause of increasing obesity among a number of men.
The Psychological issues are one of the other reasons causing obesity among the present
society. One of the main reasons of obesity is various psychological disorders like anxiety
depression and stress related factors. According to a study by Pratt and Brody (2014), there has
been a significant increase in the percentage of obesity because of the depression and the
depressive symptoms in the US. The study shows that the there is greater percentage chance of
people suffering from obesity and related symptoms if the individual suffers from depression.
According to Goldfield et al. (2010), the depression may be majorly related to the obesity in
youth and young adults in more ways than earlier thought as it may be both the cause and the
result of obesity. Anxiety related obesity issues are majorly seen in the modern society among
the children of various ages. According to Ratcliffe and Ellison (2015), there is a general trend of
the people from families, who have a medical history of anxiety to develop more Binge eating
disorders rather than those who do not have a family history of anxiety.

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In the recent times, there has been a growing use of a term called the obesity paradox,
which questions the relative unhealthiness of being obese in the present society. According to a
study by Lavie, De Schutter and Milani (2015), the obese people with the same cardiovascular
diseases as the lean people, have a better survival rate in such situations. This brings into
question the issue of unhealthiness of obesity in question but there are number issues that are a
result of obesity. The issues that may arise out of obesity are type II diabetes and a number of
cardio vascular diseases.
Apart from such diseases, people suffering from obesity and the binge eating disorders
undergo a number of psychological issues in the society. There are a number of people suffering
the social stigma and the self-esteem related disorders, which is a result of them being obese
(Salerno et al. 2015). The psychological disorders stemming out of the obesity issues are
generally because of the physical restrictions that the disease brings along with it. One of the
major effects that the obesity has in on the daily life of the individuals is on their sexuality.
Among women, the effect of obesity mostly affects their fertility and their appearance (Talmor
and Dunphy 2015). This brings them on the verge of depression causing them to have a number
of issues. their social interaction with their peers are often affected as the obese people are the
victims of body shaming leading to have emotional troubles and troubles in interacting with the
society. The obesity issues that have been brought to light by the social interactions among
women lead them to think themselves as misfits in the society adding to the depression they
suffer from already. The early childhood obesity causes the children to have a number of
physiological issues because of which it is harder for them to do normal daily tasks. Moreover,
obesity also causes them to have a number of diseases like cardiovascular problems and early
age type II diabetes affecting their daily performance. The major problem arising out of it

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developing obesity from an early age often affect the intelligence quotient of the child making
them more and more susceptible to have issues in learning and cognitive development. The early
childhood obesity and the obesity in women can be countered by the acceptance of a number of
lifestyle changes and the prenatal obesity can be helped by proper diagnoses and medication in
the modern society. The factors stopping it from being implemented are the general tendency in
the society that the fat and healthy childhood is better for the child.
Conclusion
Therefore, in this essay it is understood that the obesity is a problem which is greatly
affecting the general population because of certain changes that have occurred in the lifestyle in
the modern society. The genetic make-up and the overall heredity of a person also affect the fat
deposition in the body. Obesity in the modern society can also be associated with a number of
psychological disorders in the modern society as the cause and effect of it. The psychological
disorders often lead to binge eating among individual, which along with the degraded food
quality of the modern society and the incumbent trend of fast food causes obesity. It is not that
obesity is an incurable disease today. Proper medication and the help of a medical practitioner in
managing the lifestyle changes will help in mitigating the effect that obesity has on the society.
Thus, it can be said that obesity is becoming an epidemic but mostly because of the fault of the
humankind’s leisurely lifestyle.

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