What exactly are weight disorders? Weight disorders can be described as disorders where people have trouble gaining weight, losing weight, or even just controlling their weight. Some weight disorders can also be categorized under eating disorders. For an example if someone has anorexia, they would have problems eating and gaining weight because they might have a psychological problem or something in their body is wrong. This would be considered as a weight disorder. There are many weight disorders that can be found in a lot of people around the world, such as obesity, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and many more. But how common are weight disorders in the world today? Also, how can you prevent or even stop having a weight disorder?
Obesity today is one of one of the biggest and most common weight disorders, especially in the United States of America. But what exactly does obesity mean? Obesity could be defined as having too much body fat your specific height. To be more precise it also can be defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m^2 or higher (Pi-Sunyer, F. X.). If your body mass index is greater than 25 but smaller than 30, it would not be defined as obese, but instead it would just be called overweight. The normal body mass index would be 18.5 to < 25. If it's less than 18.5 you would fall under the category of underweight. Some would say obesity is just when someone is overweight, but that is false. Since, someone can weigh more than the guidelines for their height due to having more muscle, fat, bone, or even the liquids found in their body. Obesity could be divided into three different classes depending on how bad the case is. The first class would need to have a BMI of thirty to thirty-five. The second class would be thirty-five between forty. The third and last class can also be called as "severe" or "extreme" obesity, which means that the body mass index is forty or even higher. The class of obesity can of course change if the cause is still going on.
What are the risk factors and problems that happens cause of obesity? There are many risks that comes with obesity such as diabetes, hypertension/high blood pressure, cancer, and even death. Type 2 diabetes affects the insulin that's found in your body, which also changes the way it keeps your glucose level steady. The higher the BMI also correlates with type 2 diabetes, which increases when the BMI increases. Cancer also has a correlation with obesity, people who are obese or overweight has a 55% higher chance of dying because of cancer compared to those who are not obese. Hypertension also occurs due to obesity, since it increases the vascular volume. Hypertension would also increase your chances of getting a stroke or even a heart attack.
What causes one to become obese? There are many reasons obesity can happen like the lack of physical activity, unhealthy diet, genetics, and even social/economic issues (Symptoms and causes). If you don't do any physical activities or not active, you would not be able to burn as much calories as you should. If you eat a lot of unhealthy foods that's also high in calories, you would have to burn those calories in some way like exercise. The percentage of obesity is way higher than it was before, since there more access to unhealthy food such as fast food. This is due to their economy; most fast food restaurants are cheaper than buying healthy food. So, people would like to save money and buy the ones that are unhealthy. Also, genetics has a play in obesity, there are studies that showed that some genetics are correlated with obesity. There are four variably methylated regions that were found in genes that are linked to obesity (Tina Hesman, 2010). This means that someone who has a parent or both parents with obesity, they will have a higher chance of becoming obese. Since, the child will inherit the DNA from their parents it would also come with the chance of receiving the traits correlated with obesity.
Obesity in the United States of America is increasing. The United States has the highest mean BMI, throughout all the countries with high-income (Sturm, Hattori, 2012). Class 3 obesity's percentage was increase by 70% between the years of 2000 and 2010. This is due to the fact that more unhealthy foods are becoming more accessible than healthy foods. Also, the fast food chains are increasing, they can be found everywhere.
What can one do to prevent obesity? What can someone with obesity do to stop being obese? They both can do the same things to stop and prevent obesity. The easiest one to do is keep a healthy diet and watch how many calories you are eating. Try to stop or lower the amount of sugars in food or drinks, such as sodas and desserts. The right number of calories for someone to take varies depending the gender and age. Also, to stop or prevent obesity you will need to live an active life and be physical. A good amount of time for exercise should be around 150 minutes a week. You can do anything active to help like going to the gym, cardio work, basketball, swimming, stretching, etc. Just doing this to lose the extra weight is okay, but it should be consistent. You should watch your weight, what you eat, and stay active throughout your life. It will help you live a healthier and more peaceful life. Since, living a healthy life also correlates with your psychology.
Weight disorders does not just mean being overweight. It could also mean being underweight. Anorexia nervosa is another weight disorder, but instead of being overweight it is the opposite. Anorexia is when you are underweight and to be unable to have a healthy weight gain (Anorexia Nervosa, 2018). Anorexia cannot be diagnosed with just looks, unlike obesity. For anorexia, you don't have to be extremely underweight. You could be anorexic with just psychological problems like thinking you are "fat", then forcing yourself to eat less or even exercise to lose weight.
How to know if someone is anorexic? The person would watch what they eat and make sure they don't eat more than these number of calories, which would be a very small number. They also would force themselves to lose weight with exercise or layers of clothes to sweat more to help burn fat. They would have the need to feel fat, even though they are not and is actually underweight. They would also tend to feel dizzy or cold all the time, due to the lack of nutrients that they need to live a heathy life. There are many psychological problems that deals with anorexia nervosa, that can happen because of bullying. This is because of the society today and the prejudice against people who are fat. Also, girls are also more likely to become anorexic than men (Striegel-Moore, Rosselli, 2009).
Weight disorders is one of the things that I think is very important in living a healthy life. Everyone should be able to receive the help they need to help overcome their disorders. People should exercise with the free time they have and eat the right food and the right amount too. There are too many people out there in the world with weight disorders, which might not even be their fault due to the access of the right resources. That is really unfair, and the United States of America should help out and provide more guidelines for the children in school. They would be able to learn what do to live a happy and healthier life.
Weight disorders is a common disease today and is increasing by the year. Weight disorders mean that one is unable to keep a healthy weight, like becoming overweight (obesity) or even underweight (anorexia). There are many causes for weight disorders like economy, most weight disorders such as obesity and anorexia nervosa, can all be avoided with the right help, diet, and exercise. Weight disorders is a problem in today's world and it should be looked at and stop the increase in weight disorders. To be able to overcome this problem will lead to a healthier life and a better lifestyle.