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  An Obese Individual Simply Eats Too MuchIf you belong to the school of thought that believes that there is no excuse for obesity and that an obese individual is simply somebody who eats too much and does not take sufficient exercise, then you will need to think again. While it is undoubtedly the case that overeating together with a sedentary lifestyle can lead to obesity, it is most assuredly not the only cause of obesity.Despite the fact that not terribly well understood at the moment, there is thought to be a genetic factor which can pre-dispose some people to obesity. For instance, some forms of the genes which control such things as appetite and metabolism are believed to contribute to obesity when found in combination with specific environmental conditions. In addition, there are several genetic disorders which can lead to obesity. For example, Prader-Willi syndrome which is named after Andrea Prader and Heinrich Willi and was initially described in 1956, is a genetic condition in which, amongst other things, individuals display a voracious appetite and accumulate excessive fat, especially around the central portion of the body. Underlying illness may also lead to weight gain and obesity. Perhaps the best know, although certainly not the only, illness that often leads to obesity is hypothyroidism, in which the thyroid secretes too little thyroid hormone. Although the condition itself produces only mild weight gain, alongside the right environmental conditions, this can easily develop in a substantial rise in weight. Medication can also cause weight gain. The list of drugs which can produce weight gain is extremely long but one class of drugs that is causing concern and has attracted attention from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the class of atypical antipsychotics which can have a marked affect on an individual's metabolism. There are also a number of eating disorders which will lead to obesity, like binge eating disorder. This is a psychiatric disorder (and an element of the condition of bulimia nervosa) in which, as its name indicates, individuals are unable to control their eating and often add binge eating into an otherwise normal eating pattern. Certain diets may also lead to obesity without the individual realizing that it is the diet that is causing the problem. In other words this is not a case of simply eating too much, but of eating the wrong type of food. In a few people for instance certain foods will result in an abnormally high level of blood sugar for a short time immediately after eating. Slimming may also result in obesity. It is a fact that the majority of diets fail and we are witnessing a growing number of people who spend a substantial period of their lives moving from one diet to the next in an attempt to lose weight. What occurs here is that they invariably lose weight while on a diet and then put it back on again, normally with a little bit extra, each time they stop dieting. As they move on and off a number of diets their weight will cycle up and down, but the underlying trend is for their weight to go up over time, eventually resulting in their becoming obese. These are just a few of the causes of obesity, other than simple overeating and a lack of exercise, and several of these are either not within the control of the people concerned or their ability to exercise control over the situation is extremely limited. So, when you next see an obese individual you might be right in assuming that they have caused the problem themselves, but you might also be incorrect in jumping to this conclusion. Free Article Source: http://www.za77.org About The Author: GastricBypassFacts.info is a growing resource center providing a wealth of obesity information on topics including morbid obesity and also provides a growing number of articles on obesity |