Risks of Obesity

Obesity is often looked at as a cosmetic issue. Pant and waist sizes often dominate the conversation surrounding obesity, and even the way we talk about “weight loss” is often tailored to improving the way someone looks.

While cosmetic preference is one reason people seek weight loss support, it is not the most essential. Obesity is a chronic disease that more than 30 percent of American adults struggle with. Being obese increases your risk for developing a large collection of other health problems, and obesity is considered one of the leading causes of premature death in the United States.

A person who is 40 percent overweight is more than twice as likely to experience premature death in comparison to someone of healthy weight.

Even being moderately overweight increases your risk for health problems, and the longer you are overweight the greater your risk for developing obesity-related diseases becomes.

Physical Health Issues

Obesity can influence your physical health, your mental health, your level of daily pain and your ability to sleep soundly.

The most common obesity-related diseases are:

• Type-2 diabetes
• Heart disease
• Metabolic syndrome
• Sleep apnea
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• High cholesterol
• Gallstones
• Osteoarthritis

Obesity also increases your risk of developing certain forms of cancer, including prostate, breast and colon cancer.

Mental Health Issues

In addition to physical diseases, obesity can increase your risk for developing mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Studies have found that obese individuals have a 20 percent higher risk for developing a depressive disorder than someone of healthy weight. Unfortunately, many experts have found that it seems to be a vicious cycle when it comes to obesity and mental health. Obesity may contribute to anxiety problems and depression, but at the same time, suffering from mental health issues like those contributes to obesity.

Addressing Health Issues through Weight Loss

There are very few legitimate solutions for treating obesity. Medical weight loss is the only non-surgical approach to weight loss that shows long-term effectiveness. For weight loss to successfully reduce your risk of developing obesity-related diseases, it must be sustainable. Medical weight loss programs encourage steady and healthy weight loss by providing you with strategies to manage weight loss success long-term. Making the healthy lifestyle changes necessary will help you to develop the habits you need to treat obesity and reduce your risk of developing obesity-related mental and physical diseases.