11 Reasons Why People are Overweight Including Some That May Surprise You

Being overweight can influence your health and lifespan which is why we at lifeinsure.com and Protectyourincome.com want to pass on some interesting ideas from recent research. As a caveat, this is for general info only and as regards any health issue you should inform yourself but also talk to your health professional about these issues and how they may affect your individual situation. This is information passed on from the source and only from us as points of interest. The information comes from an article in International Journal of Obesity reproduced in nature.com.

From the article in nature.com: Obesity prevalence in the United States has been increasing for at least 100 years, with an apparent acceleration in the past 3 decades. What has increased far more dramatically is the positive (right-tailed) skewness of the distribution, such that the most obese segments of the distribution are far more obese than in years past. Obesity has increased in every age, sex, race and smoking-status stratum of the population. The group of 20 obesity experts has determined the most plausible explanations including the well-known ones regarding 21st century diet and food manufacturing and a sedentary (not active enough) lifestyle. Remember that these lists are generalities from population studies and may or may not apply to you.

The Big 2 (But there are 9 others, some you may also be able to control)

These are well known:

1. Reduced physical activity and in children particularly from reduced school-based physical education,

2. Specific food manufacturing and marketing practices (e.g., vending machines in schools, increased portion size, increased availability of fast-food, use of high-fructose corn syrup. These are the “Big Two” explanations given for the obesity epidemic and are frequently cited as targets of potential public health interventions.

The other factors in the study that were shown for being overweight

3. There is evidence that lack of sleep can be a factor. The article cites evidence that lack of sleep causes hormone changes including decreased leptin and thyroid-stimulating hormone secretion, increased ghrelin levels and decreased glucose tolerance as potential endocrine changes that occur with sleep deprivation. Leptin is the hormone that signals satiety falls with lack of sleep while ghrelin which signals hunger, rises -- and this boosts appetite. So go for 7 hours or more of sleep per night.

4. Pollutants are listed as a potential factor for overweight and obesity. These are pollutants called endocrine disruptors. This section of the report is technical but well worth reading and looking up the technical terms.

5. Iatrogenetic effect of pharmaceuticals – Iatrogenesis is defined as: Any adverse mental or physical condition induced in a patient through the effects of treatment by a physician or surgeon. This one is interesting in that the massive proliferation of pharmaceuticals have created weight gain as a side effect. Mentioned in the report as potentially causing weight gain are many psychotropic medications (antipsychotics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers), anticonvulsants, antidiabetics, antihypertensives, steroid hormones and contraceptives, antihistamines and protease inhibitors. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (antidepressants) may also produce weight gain, but data are less consistent. Almost all atypical antipsychotics produce markedly more weight gain than placebo or traditional antipsychotics. For olanzapine and clozapine, mean weight gains were over 4 kg at 10 weeks. These drugs are active at many receptors involved in body weight regulation and these findings were reproduced in animal models. Most antidiabetics, including insulin, sulfonylureas and thiazolidinediones also promote adiposity, especially the newer thiazolidinediones, which promote adipocyte proliferationBeta-blockers induce a mean weight gain of approximately 1.2 kg. Antihistamines also appear to induce weight gain, with more potent antihistamines producing greater weight gain.

6. More time spent in the “thermoneutral zone”. Now this one is interesting. The thermoneutral zone is moderate temperature above and below but around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. In days past with less air conditioning and central heat, people had to deal with more temperature swings which our guess would be more push on the metabolism to deal with it.

7. Decreased smoking. Well we have often seen what happens often when someone quits smoking – They often gain weight – tough trade off.

These next observations in the report are of genetic and population factors

8. Evidence that some age and ethnic groups have higher prevalence of obesity than others and that those age and ethnic groups have increased in relative frequency. This is purely from demographic data.

9. Evidence that people with an elderly mother are more likely to be overweight and more mothers are having children at an older age.

10. Environmental changes over the last two generations and the resulting genetic weight gain in children.

11. Similar people tend to mate with each other and thus more overweight people having kids and their children are more likely to have weight issues.

You can read more about this at an article at the newscientist.com web site (search for the keyword “fatsville” – we apologize but that’s how they titled the article).