Causes of Overweight and Obesity

Lack of Energy Balance

Lack of energy balance most often causes overweight and obesity. Energy balance simply means that your energy INPUT equals your energy OUTPUT. Energy INPUT is the amount of energy or calories you get from food and beverages. Energy OUTPUT is the amount of energy your body uses for things such as breathing, digesting, and investing in physical activities. In order to be consistent with a healthy weight, your energy INPUT and OUTPUT has to balance over time to maintain a healthy weight. When you take in more calories than you use overweight and obesity will happen over time. Other causes of Overweight and Obesity

An Inactive Lifestyle

In this day and age many Americans aren't very physically active. Reasons for this is our latest technology has many people spending hours in front of TVs and computers doing work, schoolwork, and other activities. In fact, a study has been linked to overweight and obesity claiming more than 2 hours of regular TV viewing time has contributed to this. Other reasons for not being active include: relying on cars instead of walking, fewer physical demands at work or at home because of modern technology and conveniences, and lack of physical education classes in schools.

Individuals who are inactive are more likely to put on weight because they don't burn the calories that they take in from food and drinks. An inactive lifestyle also raises your risk for coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, colon cancer, and other health problems.

What treatment would recommend?

Lifestyle Changes

Active Lifestyle changes can help you achieve long-term weight-loss success. These examples of having and active lifestyle changes include:

Focusing on balancing energy INPUT with energy OUTPUT (physical activity) Following a healthy eating plan Learning how to adopt healthy lifestyle habits

Scaling back on calories (energy INPUT) will certainly help you lose weight. In order to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, adults should cut back their calorie intake by 500 to 1,000 calories a day. A healthy eating plan is low in saturated fat, Trans fatty acid, cholesterol, sodium, and added sugar. Having a healthy eating plan will lower your risk for heart disease and other conditions.

I also would recommend some type of physical activity. Being physically active and eating fewer calories will help you lose weight and keep weight off over time. I would suggest the four main types of physical activity: aerobic, muscle-strengthening, bone strengthening, and stretching.

Source: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/obe/causes