Obesity: hereditary? Disease? Learned behavior? Laziness?

Question

I know I will probably get blasted out of the cyber waters for this question, but what do you consider to be contributing factors in obesity?
In my maternal lineage, all the women seem to be very skinny from childhood to mid-twenties. Then something happens where they gain weight and cannot get it off. I know one person in our family died due to complications of obesity. She tried to lose, but could not, so it was not laziness.
I recently found results obtained by a study in Denmark of adopted children. The child's weight, adopted parents' weight and birth parents' weight were recorded for a different study over years. To be brief, the obese children had obese birth parents. The adoption program and the adoptive parents were both very pro-healthy lifestyle, so the only direct link for weight-gain was genetic.
Has anyone else read this? Do you know of any other studies? I know, many questions but I am....TC

Answer 1

Hasn't it been proven that some ( I don't know the percentage ) actually have a condition where they don't know when they are full and keep eating?
I am obese myself - I struggled with my weight for years and finally gave up fighting. It turned out I have a thyroid condition that they are still trying to give me the correct dosagage.
I'm not making excuses - I've joined a slimming club today and intend to lose it. Three cheers for me, hip, hip,

Answer 2

Laziness? Yes. Learned behavior? Yes. Disease? Yes sometimes but it also has become a good excuse for quite a few people. Hereditary? No idea. The study you mention sounds interesting but I would need to know more about it to be able to form an opinion. You have probably heard or known of puppies (cattle working breeds) who were taken away from their parents at a few weeks of age but knew how to work cattle anyway, even if their parents were not actually working dogs... Is this hereditary (genetically implanted knowledge) or is there something else going on? Some people believe and claim that babies start learning while in the womb. Could they be learning bad eating habits then? After all why should we think that what the mother eats during pregnancy would not affect the child later on? If babies can become addicted to drugs while in the womb, can they not also get addicted to sugar?

Europe is changing quite a bit too. People are growing fatter there also. It may not be anywhere near the problem we have here but eventually it will become as bad. The arrival of fast food, the fact that kids there spend more and more time in front of computers and TVs instead of riding their bikes is showing its effect.

I lived in France a few times when I was growing up and,, believe it or not, every time I moved to France I lost weight, every time I came back here I gained. Part of it is life style (walking just about everywhere, fewer buildings with elevators, etc.) but another part is the food itself.

Americans were known as quite tall compared to the rest of the world (I say were because that too has started to change as the rest of the world is eating more and more factory food). Why is that? The food we eat? I tend to believe so. Have you ever heard of the wild ponies of Assateague, VA? I have known a couple of people who bought some of those ponies and guess what, once off the island and fed a regular diet they grew enough to become horses.

Obesity is a rich country's disease. It is now spreading to other countries because we are spreading our food making processes and lifestyle.

I guess my point is that no matter to what level disease and heredity affect your weight most people in this country are obese because of lifestyle and food supply.

Food for thought.

Answer 3

All of the above. But probably the BIGGEST factor contributing to Obesity- is the inability to keep ones mouth shut- when observing food. We've become a "see food" Society. We SEE others eating, or SEE a fast food place, or see a food Commercial on TV- and we've "gotta have some"! Our "mind set" of "gotta have it NOW..."- has turned us into walking Blimps- that can't get enough! :(

Answer 4

the fact that our current environment is very different than the environment in which humans evolved and we are not adapted to such plentiful food. We were not designed to live with such an overabundance of food. We were designed to want to eat food, but unfortunately we have invented food that is 'too good' and we overeat because our biology drives us that way. We were designed to be moving a lot -and had to to survive in the evolutionary past but now our lives (school, work, tv, computers) mean we are sitting and not moving much.
It's not just any one family. Most of the USA is overweight.

Answer 5

I think it is hard to blame just one of those factors for obesity. I think each plays it's role in contributing to obesity. I think for each person it is different, and that is what makes obesity hard to beat for many people.

Answer 6

Yes.

Answer 7

In my opinion, it can be any one of those factors, or a combination of more than one.