Obesity is also a disease! How you eat and how you move are very important!

Author: Sun Mingxiao, chief physician of Beijing Hospital

Reviewer: Xing Xiaoyan, Chief Physician, China-Japan Friendship Hospital

Many friends think that obesity is not a disease, but in fact, the World Health Organization has named obesity as a separate disease.

Obesity is divided into two categories, one is called simple obesity and the other is called secondary obesity.

Secondary obesity refers to obesity caused by certain diseases, most of which are caused by endocrine diseases. In this case, the primary disease should be actively treated.

The obesity we usually refer to is simple obesity, which is very common in daily life. Simple obesity is a metabolic disease caused by excessive energy storage in fat due to imbalance between energy intake and consumption, which then leads to an increase in fat cells or an increase in fat cell volume, making the proportion of fat in the body abnormally high. Therefore, we can define obesity as a chronic metabolic disease.

1. What are the common causes of obesity?

First of all, it is heredity. We often see a family where the father is fat, the mother is fat, and the children are also fat. So heredity is indeed a very important and non-negligible reason, but for now, we can't do anything about heredity, that is, medicine has not yet developed to the level of so-called gene therapy.

Another reason is that some people with a bad lifestyle are more likely to be obese.

For example, they eat a lot and like to eat high-energy foods. Many people have been like this since childhood. For example, they are fatter than other children of the same age since kindergarten, and this continues until elementary school and junior high school.

Another reason is that we don't like to move, especially in today's society's lifestyle. When we go out, we have very convenient means of transportation, such as taking a car, subway, airplane, etc., and there are very few exercises that can consume energy, such as walking or riding a bicycle, so it is easy for us to become obese.

There is also the issue of entertainment. Many people like to watch TV, surf the Internet, and play games at home. These are all sedentary lifestyles and are some of the causes of obesity. In other words, people who do not like outdoor sports are relatively more likely to become obese.

Figure 1 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

2. How to control diet scientifically when losing weight?

For obese people, diet control is very important. As long as you eat less than the body needs, it will create a negative energy balance and you will definitely lose weight. But in the process of losing weight, we need to pay attention to what you are losing? Is it fat or muscle?

If you don't consume enough energy or don't pay attention to a balanced diet when eating, it will lead to muscle loss.

For example, many women lose weight by eating only vegetables and fruits, but after losing weight, they may lose muscle and have some fat. In this case, once they resume their original eating habits, the rebound will be particularly severe.

After muscle loss, the body's metabolic rate will decrease, and after the body's metabolic rate decreases, the energy consumption level will decrease. Therefore, when we lose weight, we cannot only eat vegetables and fruits, but also eat staple foods and meat.

My advice to everyone is to adjust your diet under the guidance of professionals, and eat less than before while ensuring that the diet structure is reasonable and the total energy meets basic needs. This is the scientific way to control your diet.

3. What should obese people pay attention to when exercising to lose weight?

Exercise is a very difficult way to lose weight, but it can improve cardiopulmonary function and is very beneficial to the body.

If we want to exercise to lose weight, we must first evaluate the safety of the exercise, and secondly, we must evaluate the appropriate amount of exercise, so as to avoid danger during the exercise.

Figure 2 Original copyright image, no permission to reprint

There have been cases of sudden death on treadmills, which is a pity. It is good to have exercise awareness and health awareness, but before exercise, if there is no safety assessment and no guidance from a professional doctor, excessive exercise is likely to cause myocardial ischemia and sudden cardiac death.

In terms of the choice of exercise, you can do moderate intensity aerobic exercise, such as running, brisk walking, and swimming. Resistance exercise is now gradually gaining attention. Resistance exercise refers to endurance exercise, which is a kind of exercise that makes muscles grow by carrying weights. After muscle growth, the basal metabolic rate increases, and it is not easy to gain weight even if you eat a little more at this time.

Therefore, it is now recommended that weight loss must be done through a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise.

Of course, there are some others, such as flexibility exercises. Doing flexibility exercises before aerobic exercise and resistance exercise can protect our joints and muscles. It is equivalent to a warm-up exercise to avoid sports injuries.

So generally speaking, these types of exercises can be done together.