Eating and Obesity in Women

Question 1

BMI

Answer 1

Body Mass Index is a value derived from the mass and height of a person. It is based on standards that suggest an appropriate weight for your height.
Normal –> <25; Overweight –> 25-29.9; Obese –> 30+; Extreme Obesity –> 40+

Question 2

Social penalty (aka Societal Consequences)

Answer 2

Overweight and obese women are less likely to find a marriage partner and have lower annual income compared to other women.

Question 3

Abdominal Adiposity

Answer 3

Fat stored in stomach area (having an ‘apple’ shape); most dangerous kind of obesity as carrying one’s fat around the weight has a stronger association for risk of disease (ie diabetes, mortality, etc) than fat elsewhere.
Used to be more common in men, now equally common in men & women.

Question 4

What psychosocial factors increase the prevalence of carrying abdominal adiposity?

Answer 4

• Weight gain from smoking (fat is more likely to be accumulated in their abdomen compared to other parts of the body)
• People under stress

Question 5

Multifactorial

Answer 5

A number of factors contribute to risk of obesity, like genes, environmental contributors, and behavioral contributors

Question 6

What are the causes/dey determinants of obesity?

Answer 6

• The amount of physical activity, specifically the lack of physical activity
• Diet –> eating a high fat diet typically causes obesity

Question 7

Bariatric surgeries

Answer 7

Performed on the stomach to induce weight loss

Question 8

Weight Cycling

Answer 8

Continuously losing and gaining weight can have negative health effects (especially seen in those who undergo ineffective weight loss programs)
- This includes metabolic consequences –> changes how the body consume calories (remember the spreadsheet example)
- Height weight fluctuations –> have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and death

Question 9

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Answer 9

Short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that seeks to change people’s patterns of thinking or behavior and the way they feel about a problem

Question 10

Self-monitoring

Answer 10

Having people monitor their food intake and exercise. People are asked to record their before and after exercises or melas. Important to take note of the environment as that impacts our eating habits

Question 11

Binge eating disorder

Answer 11

Frequently consuming unusually large amounts of food in one sitting and feeling that eating behavior is out of control. The excessive eating generally occurs for at least two days a week and must last for at least 6 months.
» People with this disorder tend to do poorly in weight control programs bc these programs don’t target their eating disorders

Question 12

High-Risk Periods

Answer 12

A period in a woman’s life where she is at high risk of gaining weight. This period generally occurs between 25-34 years of age.
Other contributing periods:
- Settling down in long term relationships
- Pregnancy –> a lot of women do not lose weight after giving birth
- Menopause –> slow steady weight gain typically seen in women post penopause, thought to be due to the fact that many women are not as physically active, or that metabolism rate decreases