Reasons for people to lose weight (Expenditure exceeds energy intake)
There are many reasons why people lose weight they include:
- High metabolism
- Skipping meals
- Illness
- Injury
- Active lifestyle
- Stress
- Malnutrition
- Eating wrong foods
- Exercise
- Dieting
There is only one good reason to diet and that is to change a bad eating pattern but only if the diet program is healthy A good diet is for life which most people do not relies as soon as you stop the diet and change your eating pattern the weight you lost will gain very quickly because breaking a diet often results in guilt, poor self esteem and despair often followed by comfort eating.
There are a huge amount of reasons why dieting is unhealthy and unbeneficial here are the results of a bad diet program:
- reduces self-esteem
- the lower the calories eaten per day, the harder it is for you to get your daily requirements of proteins and vitamins.
- makes your body believe it is starving so it starts to save fat, as this is its best way to store energy
- losing weight means digesting your own body tissues instead of food and unfortunately, dieting does not tell your body what parts it needs to digest or which parts to save.
- severe dieting causes muscle loss and if you are unlucky the loss may be from your heart with severe consequences.
- dieting changes your body chemistry and one effect may be bad breath
- If you're a smoker you may smoke even more to dull the hunger pane’s
- lowers the base metabolic rate which means you can live on less food, so when you return to your normal food intake which was already too high, you put on weight even faster than before and will probably end up heavier than before the diet.
- often causes constipation and this concentrates toxins and carcinogens within the bowels and they are present for a longer period. Fruit and vegetables have a positively beneficial effect on the smooth running of your digestive system.
Reasons for people’s weight to stay the same (energy intake equals energy expenditure)
In order for the body weight to stay the same, people must be balancing their amount of calories they consume with the amount of calories the body uses or they burn off. This can happen when a good eating pattern is achieved and exercise is regular but not intense.
Factors why so many people are obese in today’s society
Obesity results from consuming more calories than the body uses. The number of calories needed varies from person to person, depending on age, sex, physical activity, and the person's metabolic rate the rate at which the body burns calories or it is inherited in the genes.
There is a growing epidemic of obesity in Britain. ‘In addition to the 21% of women and 17% of men in England regarded as obese, another 32% of women and 46% of men are overweight. Also a report by the Department of Health says that in four years 19% of boys and 22% of girls will be obese, and that Britain is now the second-fattest nation in the developed world’. Here are some of the factors that I think cause many people to be obese in today’s society:
Inherited factors
Obesity tends to run in families, suggesting that it may have an inherited cause. However, family members share not only genes, but also diet and lifestyle habits that may contribute to obesity. Separating these lifestyle factors from inherited factors is difficult because it is very common for obesity to run families.
Several genes influence weight. One gene that has been identified the ob gene controls the production of Leptin. Leptin is a protein made by fat cells. Leptin travels to the brain and acts on receptors in the hypothalamus (the part of the brain that helps regulate appetite). The message carried by leptin is to decrease food intake and increase the amount of calories (energy) burned.
Inactivity
Physical inactivity is one of the main reasons for the increase in obesity among people in wealthy societies. It is also a common cause of obesity as people age. Inactive people need fewer calories. When physical activity increases, food intake usually increases. However, when physical activity decreases, food intake does not always decrease accordingly, and for some people, it even increases.
The lack of exercise (inactivity) is caused from lifestyle pressures such as after work people are two tired to exercise or they have many inactive leisure activities (watching TV, computer games)
Binge drinking
Drinking alcohol can contribute to obesity. Alcohol tends to increase the number of calories taken in because it is usually consumed in addition to food. A single shot has 80 to 90 calories. A pint of beer (which is about 5-8% alcohol) has 150 calories. As soon as alcohol is consumed, it is used as energy, causing the calories from food to be stored as fat. Furthermore, alcohol tends to stimulate the appetite and reduce self-control.
Foods high in fat
In wealthy societies, the diet has become higher in fats because of fast food and foods high in sugar. One problem with a high-fat diet is that fats do not trigger the stop-eating (satiety) response as quickly as carbohydrates or proteins. So when a diet is high in fat, more food tends to be eaten also, fats have twice as many calories per gram as carbohydrates and proteins.
Pregnancy
Gaining weight during pregnancy is normal and necessary. However, for a few women, pregnancy is the beginning of weight problems: They gain a large amount of weight and do not lose it afterward due to child or work responsibilities.
Schools
Schools have a lack approach to PE (physical education) most PE departments are out dated and low budgeted and single minded about what activities/sports should be carried out. Most school PE kits are out dated and ugly for boys it is not a huge issue but for girls it is a totally different matter. Girls are quite image conscious there's pressure on the way they look, and they don't want to feel they are making fools of themselves. Boys are different. They just muck in and enjoy sport. Large numbers of girls dislike doing physical education at school because they hate wearing old-fashioned gym kits also playing old fashion sports such as hockey and netball. I feel if more modern kit and activates/sports were offered such as wide range of dance(square dancing, HipHop, Jazz, and Modern-Dance etc) and yoga it may inject some enthusiasm and get more girls doing PE.
Who is responsible for obesity in today society?
There are so many people responsible in today’s society for obesity take your pick:
- The government for not changing laws on food regulation
- The food regulation committee for not campaigning to change food regulations
- Advertising regulation committee for not changing rules about how many adverts can be shown and when the adverts and what times they are on
- Department of Health ignoring the danger’s for so long that it now has become a epidemic
- The drink regulation committee for not complaining to change drink regulations
- Fast food companies
- Food industry for creating foods which are high in sugar
- Drink industry for creating drinks which are high in sugar
- Schools have participated with businesses in schemes to provide free books and math’s equipment in return for tokens from crisps and biscuit packets
- Energy-saving devices such as lifts and escalators
- Parents for not looking after the children properly and not feeding them a health diet
I feel you can keep pointing the finger at other people but the main person to blame is yourself. At the end of the day you have to take responsibility for your own actions either to yourself or to the people under your care such as your children. You are responsible for how much and which food you eat or give your children that is the same with what you drink and concerning alcohol how much u drink. Concerning exercise it is the same concept u have some sort of control of how much exercise or how much exercise your child has for example you can walk your child to school or you can drive your school to school.
References: The Guardian ( pg 3 Factors why so many people are obese in today’s society