Obesity is a health condition that is characterized by overweight and high-fat content. Obese individuals face mood swings and frequent irritation. It is challenging to reduce weight in a medical condition like obesity. High body mass index, more waist circumference, and a high waist to hip ratio are symptoms of obesity. Obese individuals tend to lean towards high-calorie foods. Here you can find tips on how to prevent obesity; and how the brain makes it challenging for you to reduce weight.
What should you avoid to prevent obesity?
- Eating more processed food.
- Consuming food with high sugar and fat content.
- Eating more than necessary.
- Drinking too much alcohol.
- Eating to comfort yourself– eating when you are depressed, under high stress, or just moody.
- Choosing junk over fruits and vegetables.
- Quit smoking: A person tends to gain weight after they quit smoking. It is a withdrawal symptom, although quitting smoking has many more positive effects.
- Previous attempts to lose weight: If you already attempted to lose weight, but succumb to junk, it can negatively impact your system. Stick to a schedule considering your mental stability.
Medical conditions like hyperthyroidism can result in insulin-resistant. Insulin in your system fails to efficiently breakdown glucose. This condition arises because the cells deny insulin activity due to tolerance. This is the moment you change your lifestyle along with diet.
Type-2 diabetes can also lead to poor glycemic control making it more challenging to reduce weight. Underlying genetic conditions can also be a reason.
How does good sleep help you prevent obesity?
Sleep increases the hormone leptin and reduces ghrelin. Leptin is responsible for suppressing appetite and encourages the body to expend energy. Low ghrelin reduces the feeling of hunger and increases satiety.
Sleeplessness causes changes in hormones that regulate appetite. Hence, the lack of sleep increases the chances of eating most of the calories at night. This routine can increase weight. Lack of sleep also influences one to eat high-calorie food and junk. More sleep can reduce sugar craving leading to controlled weight. Good rest also promotes proper insulin function.
Tips to prevent obesity
- Regular exercise: If you eat and do nothing to burn your calories, you may eventually tend to increase weight. Everything you eat is finally metabolized into energy, depending on your requirement. If you continue a sedentary lifestyle, the food settles as fat in your body. You will have to do more work in order to burn fat.
- Well-maintained sleep cycle: A maintained cycle will also help you manage the hormone levels or ghrelin and leptin.
- Calculate the calories: Make a chart for yourself considering your calorie requirement, intake, and calorie-burn during the day. Prefer a plate with less radius, depending on your need.
- Change eating habits: Consider less processed food since they are rich in fat. The fat globules are hard to digest a substance, resulting in low energy production. Instead, you will feel tired after a high-calorie intake. If you are in need of immediate supply, you’ll have to choose carb-rich food. Now, there is no need to digest the lipids, which will eventually settle as fat. A protein and fiber-rich diet will give the benefits of both carbohydrates and fat. A keto-diet under professional care can help you lose weight over time.
Why is it challenging to reduce weight?
It is challenging to reduce weight in obesity. Food releases Dopamine into our system, giving us a sense of pleasure and satisfaction. A study conducted on obesity found that obesity makes a person feel less satisfied after a meal. Obese individuals tend to eat more high-calorie food, which in turn produces more Dopamine. The increased concentration signals the brain for compensation.
Obesity makes you feel less satisfied even after a good meal due to the decreased level of dopamine receptors. He/she feels the need to consume more, for satisfaction.
Why does the brain lean towards high-calorie food consumption?
In a brain study regarding high-calorie food consumption-like cheese, butter, fat– they found out that nociceptin neurons were high in concentration and activity. These specific neurons are present in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.
Hyperactive nociceptin neurons inhibits the stimulus, which controls the satiety of food-intake.
When they removed the nucleus, they found that the subjects no longer expressed craving towards high-calorie food. Intake of high-calorie food disrupts the energy balance, leading to an input of more calories. This loop eventually leads to obesity. Although, it depends upon individuals’ nociceptin neuronal activity.
How obesity affects overall health
- Poor cognitive functions
- Increased diabetic risk
- Risk of a brain stroke
- Increase in blood pressure
- High blood cholesterol
- Fatty liver and kidney disease
- Certain cancers
- Pregnancy complications
How obesity affects the brain?
The vulnerable brain regions due to obesity include the hippocampus and frontal lobes. Accumulation of high fat in the brain can cause disruptions in brain circuits. The excess calorie influx and fat results in hippocampal inflammation. Due to reduced brain supply, it can also reduce the Hippocampal volume. This accumulation can also result in brain atrophy– loss of brain cells. Atrophies can eventually lead to a brain stroke.
These structural changes collectively impair metabolism and cognitive functions. These effects result in decreased N-acetyl aspartate— responsible for brain health. High BMI corresponds to reduced NAA, resulting in memory and cognitive defects, which are also a consequence of brain atrophy. Abdominal obesity increases the risk of dementia, affecting metabolism, and cognition. Obesity can affect the level of interleukin-6, affecting glucose metabolism.
Obesity makes you older anatomically. White matter in the brain decreases with age. The reduction in white matter contributes to dementia. But, this aging process is not the same for all. Obese individuals age faster than healthy ones. The white matter tends to degenerate more quickly.
