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How can the issue of obesity be solved?
Posted by Yu Tung, 06.12.2022
I. Introduction
Obesity is considered one of the most common lifestyle-related diseases throughout the world today. There are various causes of obesity, which include taking in excessive fat and sugar, lack of sleep and exercise as well as genetic and neurological traits. According to NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (2016), if the global trends in overweight and obesity continue, by 2025, the worldwide prevalence of obesity will reach 18% in men and 21% in women. In other words, there has been an alarming rise in the rate of obesity in many regions of the world, and Taiwan is no exception. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, R. O. C (2022), nearly 47.9% of adults are overweight or clinically obese in 2019. Additionally, the Ministry also points out that eight out of ten leading causes of death in Taiwan are related to obesity, including heart diseases and strokes (Figure 1). Since people with excessive amount of body fat are more likely to develop a number of chronic diseases, it is high time we did some actual actions to prevent us from being overweight and obese. Considering this issue, we will provide three possible treatments to obesity. These include eating regular meals and having a healthy diet, keeping a good mood, and building muscles to speed up metabolism.
Figure 1. Eight out of ten leading causes in Taiwan are related to obesity
II. Problem (Background)
WHO (World Health Organization) (n.d.) defines overweight and obesity as abnormal or excessive build-up of body fat which may threaten people’s health. A body mass index (BMI is a numerical height-weight relation) ranging between 25.0 to <30 is considered overweight while over 30.0 is obese. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (2022), about half of adults in Taiwan are overweight and obese. To discuss this issue, we conducted a survey and found that 45.7% of respondents think they are overweight or obese (Figure 2). Even though there are so many ways for people to keep their extra pounds off, such as consuming fewer calories and carbohydrates, it is still hard for people to continue to lose weight. Freedman (2011) points out that everyone who tries to go on a diet seems to fail in the long term. For example, while people conduct intermittent fasting, they tend to feel hungrier than before because their stomach would release a kind of hormone called ghrelin, which is also called "hunger hormone." Because ghrelin drives people to eat, people’s built-in cravings for carbohydrates and snacks would increase. As a result, people who go on a diet seem to gain pounds back more easily. However, as everybody knows, overweight and obesity are major causes of various diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and gallbladder disease. Since excessive amount of fat would do harm to people’s bodies, we must pay attention to this problem. Therefore, our main purpose is to analyze and propose three feasible treatments to obesity.
Figure 2. Percentage of people who consider themselves obese
III. Solution 1
First of all, eating regular meals and having a healthy diet are essential to burn calories. For many people, going on a diet is a common way to avoid being obese. However, Paoli et al. (2019) stated, “Often infrequent meal pattern, i.e. a reduced meal frequency, is associated with an irregular eating approach that could cause weight gain, increase hunger-related hormones, and ultimately lead to a metabolic disturbance that may increase cardiovascular risk.” The research shows that an infrequent meal pattern is highly related to getting fat. Also, according to our survey, 189 respondents who have had a problem of obesity stated that they often consume foods with high salt and high sugar. In addition, 103 respondents considered that irregular meals may cause their obesity (Figure 3). This result shows that people not only often skip meals but also satisfy their hunger by eating unhealthy foods. In order to give the body energy to burn fat, people should maintain balanced diet habits and calculate how much nutrition they should get in one day. As a result, having regular meals and taking enough nutrition are important when we lose weight.
Figure 3. The Reasons of getting fat
IV. Solution 2
Secondly, keeping a good mood plays an important role in preventing people from getting fat. Wurtman et al. (2018) states,” An extreme example of this association is seen in binge eating disorder, in which excessive quantities of food are ingested over short periods of time by individuals who have severe anxiety or have experienced related negative emotional states.” If people are in a bad mood, one of the most common ways to ease their stress is eating a lot. However, this way may make people fail to lose weight because their diet will be out of control. According to our survey, most respondents’ stress levels are over 3 (out of 5), which means modern people are usually under lots of pressure (Figure 4). Short et al. (2020) shows that a shorter sleep may cause anger, depression, and anxiety on people. If people get enough sleep every day, their brains will be more able to control their emotions and deal with any anxiety they have especially during the time when they try to lose weight. To sum up, if people can try their best to get enough sleep, they will not submerge in frustration and overeating.
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Figure 4. The respondents’ stress level
V. Solution 3
The last possible solution is to build muscles to speed up metabolism. According to Harvard Health Publishing (2021), if a person’s metabolism is higher and faster, it is much easier to burn more calories to shed his or her pounds no matter when he or she is at rest or during activities. As for the way to increase metabolism, running on treadmill and doing HIIT (high-intensity interval training) cardio are the most effective and efficient workouts to lose weight, which can also improve people’s oxidative capacity for muscle. Zeni et al. (1996) conducted a research on comparing the caloric expenditure in 6 different kinds of aerobic machines, and the result indicated that running on treadmill led to the highest rate of caloric expenditure compared to other machines. Besides, Falcone et al. (2015) found that doing a half an hour HIIT session can burn 25% to 30% calories than a 30-minutes exercise of weightlifting, cycling or playing balls. Moreover, doing HIIT training can save much time since it takes people only half an hour each time, hence increasing people’s motivation. Based on the results of our survey, nearly 30% of respondents do not exercise regularly (Figure 5). In the meantime, more than 60% of participants agree that doing exercise does help people lose weight (Figure 6). Since laziness and lack of time are the main reasons why people do not exercise regularly, running on the treadmill at home and doing HIIT cardio are two feasible solutions for people, not only because they can help build muscle to speed up metabolism but save much time.
Figure 5. The survey results of participants’ exercise habits
Figure 6. The survey results of whether participants think doing exercise can help lose weight
VI. Conclusion
To sum up, in the modern world, most people are under lots of stress which makes them overeat comfort foods. In addition, due to their busy schedules at work or school, many people may skip meals or not have exercise habits. These unhealthy lifestyles are the main factors of being obese. In this research paper, we provided three most effective and healthy ways to help people lose weight. First, in order to burn calories, eating regular meals is essential. Second, keep a good mood to prevent ourselves from overeating. Last, build muscles to speed up metabolism by doing exercises. Obesity is one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century, and it increases the risk of other diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers. In doing so, it is hoped that public awareness can be raised towards obesity.
References
Freedman, D. H. (2011). How to fix the obesity crisis. Scientific American, 304(2), 40–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26002392
Falcone, P. H., Tai, C. Y., Carson, L. R., Joy, J. M., Mosman, M. M., McCann, T. R., Crona, K. P., Kim, M. P., & Moon, J. R. (2015). Caloric expenditure of aerobic, resistance, or combined high-intensity interval training using a hydraulic resistance system in healthy men. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 29(3), 779–785. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000000661
Harvard Health Publishing (2021). Does metabolism matter in weight loss?
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diet-and-weight-loss/does-metabolism-matter-in-weight-loss
NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) (2016). Trends in adult body-mass index in 200 countries from 1975 to 2014: a pooled analysis of 1698 population-based measurement studies with 19·2 million participants. Lancet (London, England), 387(10026), 1377–1396. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30054-X
Paoli, A., Tinsley, G., Bianco, A., & Moro, T. (2019). The influence of meal frequency and timing on health in humans: the role of fasting. Nutrients, 11(4), 719.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/4/719
Short, M. A., Booth, S. A., Omar, O., Ostlundh, L., & Arora, T. (2020). The relationship between sleep duration and mood in adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep medicine reviews, 52, 101311.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S108707922030054X?casa_token=aRVA1gzaHCoAAAAA:w3DCl2dywx3T5-tv6iscAQG7-SUdf8DuR6VyfgnBTpQlXQf_B1Y0f5vQwwQtQvt47XplDEt6
The Ministry of Health and Welfare (2022). 肥胖是一種慢性病維持健康體位全民動起來. https://www.hpa.gov.tw/Pages/Detail.aspx?nodeid=4576&pid=15055
Wang, Ho-Seng (2006). 飢餓素與運動Ghrelin and Exercise. Journal of Exercise Physiology and Fitness,(5),1-10.
Wurtman, J., & Wurtman, R. (2018). The trajectory from mood to obesity. Current obesity reports, 7(1), 1-5.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13679-017-0291-6
World Health Organization. Obesity. https://www.who.int/health-topics/obesity#tab=tab_1
Zeni, A. , Hoffman, M. & Clifford, P. (1996). Energy Expenditure With Indoor Exercise Machines. JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association, 275 (18), 1424-1427. https://oce.ovid.com/article/00005407-199605080-00030
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