FinallyitFits

Putting On Weight

There can be many factors that cause people to gain weight, sometimes it can be through medical problems and is no fault of there own, others it is simply not taking care of what they eat and eating a lot of junk foods instead of a healthy well balanced diet. There are three main factors that contribute to weight gain and these are, binge eating, medical problems and emotional eating.

Medical problems

Sometimes weight gain and obesity can be caused by an underlying medical condition, some conditions which affect the weight are

Hypothyroidism – sometimes the thyroid gland in the neck can produce not enough thyroid hormone. This hormone helps to regulate our metabolism and too little of this hormone slows down the metabolism and can cause us to gain weight.

If you or your Doctor thinks that your weight problem might be due to a problem with the thyroid gland then blood tests can be taken to find if this may be the cause.

Cushing’s syndrome – Sometimes the adrenal glands can produce an excess of a steroid called cortisol, when this happens fat builds up around the abdomen, back and upper face.

Depression – Suffering from depression can lead to over eating which if left unchecked will result in the person becoming overweight, the person then enters a vicious circle because they then can become even more depressed as a result of piling on weight and eat more.

There are also certain illnesses which are hereditary and diseases affecting the brain which can cause weight gain. Certain medications are also known to have an affect on the weight, most notably steroid medications which are used in the treatment of asthma. Anti depressants and drugs for high blood pressure can also cause problems with the weight.

Emotional Problems

Comfort eating occurs when a person consumes large amounts of food which are generally termed “junk food”, comfort eating is when a person eats not because of hunger but in response to feelings.

Feelings of anger, boredom, depression, anxiety and problems with relationships can all cause emotional eating. Most of us will only turn to comfort eating on the odd occasion and of course if we are active and eat healthily overall then it doesn’t become a problem but sometimes a person can develop low esteem as a result of over eating and get themselves into a vicious circle.

Binge eating

Someone suffering from binge eating will eat large quantities of food in a short space of time and will do this on regular occasions, suffering from binge eating causes a person to eat continually even when they are full.

The binge eater will have no control over the amount of food that they eat and the disorder is more common in people who are severely obese. Binge eating not only causes the sufferer to gain weight but is also linked to several serious medical conditions such as the increased risk of:

• Diabetes

• High blood pressure

• High cholesterol

• Gall bladder disease

• Heart disease

• Cancer

If you suffer from binge eating it is extremely important that you receive help for the disorder, treatment usually focuses on self esteem boosting rather than weight loss at first and cognitive behavioural therapy can help as can anti depressants.