Obesity Risk Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Poor people are more obese than rich people. Most scientists claim that this is because poor people don't have access to the right foods. Poor people eat a higher carbohydrate diet and eat fewer fruits and vegetables. In addition, they may not have access to good or safe places to exercise.
There is the other factor that fat people are discriminated against. This means that discrimination is also partly to blame for people being obese.
Genetics
It's true that fatness seems to run in families. Many people blame their obesity on their genes, but usually it is not the case. It is quite rare to have a fat gene. The Pima Indians are one of the rare genetic types to be overweight.
What happens is that most families learn their eating behaviors from their parents. Habits and lifestyles are learned in families and that is why fatness runs in families.
Age
If you look around, you will quickly notice that fat people are mostly older and that thin people are mostly younger. The reason is that as we age we get more responsibilities and burdens. It becomes more difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The other factor is that as we age we need less calories to maintain our bodies. We don't cut back on our food consumption or increase our physical activities and putting on weight becomes easier.
Diet
Eating sugary foods or drinking soda are strong risk factors for obesity. A well planned diet is strongly correlated with being fit.
Lifestyle
There is a strong association with television use and computer games and obesity. Those that sit around the most will gain weight the easiest. Increased muscle mass will burn more calories even at rest. Those that are the most fit are on athletic teams and/or learn to enjoy doing activities that use the body. The higher your body mass index is the less likely it is that you exercise or do fun things like hike or bike.
Friends
Fat people tend to have fat friends. People become like the people that they hang out with. If you hang out with athletes, it is much more likely that you will exercise than if your best friends are gamers. It's a fact of life. If your friends refuse to do anything to stay healthy, you have to make a choice to get new friends or to stay fat. Surely it's not that clear cut, but you get the idea.
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