If you belong to the school of thought which believes that there is simply no excuse for obesity and that a severely overweigh individual is merely someone who eats too much food and does not get sufficient exercise, then you will need to think again. While it is undoubtedly the case that overeating combined with an inactive lifestyle can cause obesity, it is certainly not the only cause. In spite of the fact that obesity is not terribly well understood at this time, it is thought that there is a genetic factor which pre-disposes certain people to obesity. For instance, some forms of the genes which control such things as metabolism and appetite are believed to contribute to obesity when found in combination with certain environmental conditions. Additionally, there are several genetic disorders which can cause obesity. For example, Prader-Willi syndrome which is named after Andrea Prader and Heinrich Willi and was first described in 1956, is a genetic condition in which, in addition to other things, sufferers have a voracious appetite and accumulate excessive fat, especially around the central portion of the body. Illness may also cause a gain in weight and obesity. Possibly the best know, although not the only, illness which frequently results in obesity is hypothyroidism, where the thyroid secretes too little thyroid hormone. In spite of the fact that the condition itself produces only relatively mild weight gain, together with suitable environmental conditions, this can easily turn into a substantial gain in weight. Some drugs can also lead to a rise in weight. The list of medicines which can produce weight gain is extremely long but one class of drugs which is causing concern and attracted attention from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a class of atypical antipsychotics which can have a clear affect on a person's metabolism. There are also several eating disorders which can produce obesity, such as binge eating disorder. Binge eating disorder is a psychiatric disorder (which is an element of the condition of bulimia nervosa) in which, as its name suggests, individuals are unable to control their eating and frequently intersperse binge eating into what is otherwise a normal pattern of eating. Certain diets may also cause obesity without the person realizing that it is the diet which is the cause of the problem. In other words this is not a case of merely eating too much, but of eating the wrong type of food. In a number of people for instance certain foods can give rise to an unusually high blood suger level for a time immediately after eating. Dieting itself may also produce obesity. It is unfortunately true that the majority of diets fail and we are witnessing an increasing number of people who spend a significant proportion of their lives moving from one diet to another in the hope of losing weight. What actually happens here is that they invariably lose weight while on a diet and then put it back on again, normally with a little bit extra, every time they stop dieting. As they move on and off a variety of diets their weight cycles up and down, but the underlying trend is for their weight to rise over time, which eventually results in obesity. These are just a few of the causes of obesity, other than simple overeating and a lack of exercise, and several of these causes are either outside of the control of the people concerned or their ability to control the situation is extremely limited. So, when you next see an obese individual you may be right in saying that they have caused their own problem, but you could equally be wrong in jumping to this conclusion.
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