What is obesity and what are some factors that contribute to it?

It is a complex, chronic disease that affects nearly a third of the adult Australian population. Two-thirds of Australians are either overweight or obese.

There are many lifestyle factors that can be modified that can contribute towards weight gain, such as overeating, soft-drinks, food choices, eating patterns, lack of physical activity, sedentary lifestyle, modern living.

There are also factors that you cannot control that may or may not be able to be modified that contribute towards weight gain such as medical conditions, medications, physiological states such as puberty, pregnancy, menopause, and mental health conditions such as depression, stress and anxiety. Furthermore, your genes strongly influence whether you are able to develop obesity or not (hence why some people can have extremely unhealthy behaviours and still not gain weight).

The way in which your genes are influenced by behaviour and the environment is referred to as “epigenetics” and this provides an explanation of how obesity occurs in a large number of the population.