Obesity has physical and mental impacts. Obesity is a medical term that exists to indicate that our health is at risk. When you are obese the chances of health risks increases substantially. The likelihood of mental health issues is also greater.
I don’t write this to be mean, or bring the mood down, I mention it because there is a lot of misinformation about fat, obesity, and the concept of being healthy at every size.
Weight and health
The ways weight affects our mental and physical health
Even if you are fortunate enough to be free from disease related to obesity, Obesity itself has many impacts on our mind and body.
- joint instability from carrying excess weight
- pain - including joint and gastrointestinal
- excess weight makes it harder to be mobile and can cause discomfort
- higher rates of depression
- cancer rates are higher in obese people
- chronic inflammation conditions are more common
- longevity - quality and length of life is reduced
- diabetes - obesity desensitizes your body to the action of insulin
Obesity has an effect on biological systems that perpetuates issues. This adds to the reasons to lose weight but also explains why losing weight can be especially difficult. However, if we understand how our body responds to obesity, we can be prepared to tackle the challenges.
Below is taken from a 2024 article by Segal and Gunturu.
In short, it highlights that obesity creates stress and chronic inflammation, via biological processes, and inhibits the biological processes that moderate these issues.
Psychological Issues Associated With Obesity
Biological
Adipose tissue in obese individuals secretes various hormones and signaling molecules known as adipokines, which play crucial roles in metabolism and immunity. These include anti-inflammatory adipokines in lean individuals and pro-inflammatory cytokines in obese individuals. These pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as TNF-alpha and IL-6, along with hormones like leptin, resistin, and visfatin, contribute to the development of chronic low-grade inflammation seen in obesity.[23][24] Leptin, associated with appetite and energy balance, is secreted in proportion to fat storage, while adiponectin decreases in proportion to fat storage.[25] All of these can affect mood and cognition by altering neurotransmitter function.
Stress represents a condition where homeostasis is jeopardized, prompting the body to activate various responses to reinstate equilibrium. Stress regulation primarily occurs within the body through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system.[25][10] The HPA system regulates many of the body’s physiological processes, such as digestion, sexuality, energy storage and expenditure, mood, and emotions, mainly through the activity of cortisol.[26][27][26] Cortisol mainly increases blood glucose through gluconeogenesis and suppresses the immune system. CRF overexpression can cause inflammation and produce symptoms of anxiety that lead to a vicious cycle of stress-induced stress.[28][29][26]
The brain is vital in managing stress reactions, involving the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, central to learning, decision-making, and emotion regulation. Under stress, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex can shrink, whereas the amygdala becomes more active, disturbing the brain’s stress management system.[27] Chronic stress leads to ongoing activation of the stress hormone pathway, causing changes in brain communication that heighten pleasure from rewards and increase anxiety and fear.[16][30] This results in a heightened response to rewards, like the pleasure from eating high-calorie, sugary foods, making them seem more rewarding when stressed. This creates a cycle where consuming such foods temporarily eases stress, but the decrease in pleasure signals afterward heightens the desire for more, establishing a loop of stress-eating.[31][32][33][34]
Am I obese?
Get the information to help you know where you stand. Then you can make changes to go from obesity to healthy.
A small note about BMI: BMI can be inaccurate in both directions. For myself, it was inaccurate in showing me as in the healthy range when my (actual) body fat percentage (BFP) was over 40%. Well and truly in the obese zone.
BMI
BMI while not as accurate as we'd like gives most people a ballpark of where they're at.
It doesn't tell us how much muscle or fat we have but unless you are particularly active, chances are it is a good indication of health.
BFP
Body fat % is more accurate to where you are travelling.
Paired with lean muscle and visceral fat we have a better understanding of where our weight lies.
BMI is a super easy and quick way to understand whether you are underweight, overweight, or in the norm. Some may argue that it is inaccurate because it doesn’t differentiate between fat and muscle, but unless you are a weightlifter and particularly active, your BMI is a generally good gauge if you do not have access to body composition scales.
Body fat % has varying accuracy but is better than BMI. This measure (BFP) is most easily discovered with at home body composition scales. Thankfully these scales are now affordable and the technology has improved so much over the last few years that you can feel relatively confident of their accuracy to a point.
