VINAYA VANCHAKA:SURPRISING FACTS CONTRIBUTING TO OVERWEIGHT

Obesity and gaining weight has been a hot topic for discussion for a long time. Apart from genetics, there are many factors that contribute to weight gain. One fact is that, most of us despite knowing the grounds for obesity; don’t even work for it.

Obesity in simple words can be defined as “eating more and moving less” but researchers have revealed few more surprising factors responsible for this:

·         Lack of sleep increases the risk of obesity. In the rigorous work life balance we often cut down our sleep time which could result in increasing body weight. Late night work and gaming and chatting trend has been increased; bringing health risk along with it.

·         Pollution is one of the surprising elements which can cause obesity. Today’s pollutants affect our hormone and our hormone finally affects our body weight.

·         Several medicines have found playing positive role in increasing the weight. Medicines like contraceptives, steroid hormones, blood pressure tablets, antidepressants and diabetes drugs can increase weight.

·         Where quitting smoking or decreased smoking is considered to be good for health, we are often not aware that this good habit can contribute in gaining weight.

·         Emotional factors such as anger, depression can cause over eating than usual and increase the chance of weight gain. So taking proper diet during the period of emotional stress can only help in avoiding weight gain at this time.

·         There are some evidence that shows that older a woman, at the time of giving birth to her baby, higher her child’s risk of obesity. These days when late marriage has become the latest tradition, the health risks for the women and her child cannot be ignored.

·         Temperature controlled home and office environment prevent us from burning calories and simultaneously helps in increasing weight. One must try to avoid in staying such environment for too long.

Being overweight does not happen overnight. It develops gradually over time, as a result of poor diet, lifestyle choices and the above mentioned factors too. “Lack of physical activities, drinking too much alcohol, junk foods and improper diet plan are the major cause for gaining weight which could further lead to obesity”, says Vinaya Vanchaka, Dietician.