Total Diet

Weight gain occurs when you eat more calories than what is required by the body for doing activities. If the food you eat provides more calories than your body uses needs, the excess is converted into fat.

The reasons for the imbalance between calorie intake and consumption vary by individual. Your age, sex, and genes, and environmental factors all may contribute.

• Genes: Obesity tends to run in families. This is caused both by genes and by shared diet and lifestyle habits.
• Emotions: Some people overeat because of depression, anger and for many other reasons. It doesn’t mean that obese and overweight people have more emotional problems then the other ones.
• Environmental Factors: Most important environmental factor is Lifestyle. Your eating habits and activity level are partly learned from the people around you. Overeating and sedentary habits are the most important risk factors for obesity.
• Age: People tend to lose muscle and gain fat as they age. Their metabolism also slows somewhat. Both of these lower their calorie requirement.
• Certain medical conditions and medications can cause obesity, although these are much less common causes of obesity than overeating and inactivity. Some examples of these are as follows: Hypothyroidism, Crushing syndrome, Certain medications (examples are steroids, antidepressants)