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1. Genetics and prenatal factors
Health is especially important during early life, as this affects your health later on. In fact, a lot can be determined while the fetus is still in the womb (2Trusted Source).
A mother’s diet and lifestyle choices matter a great deal and may influence a baby’s future behavior and body composition.
Studies show that women who gain excessive weight during pregnancy are more likely to have heavy 3-year-olds (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).
Similarly, children who have parents and grandparents who are obese are much more likely to be obese than kids with parents and grandparents who are normal weight (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source).
Furthermore, the genes you inherit from your parents may determine your susceptibility to weight gain (7Trusted Source).
Though genetics and early life factors are not exclusively responsible for obesity, they contribute to the problem by predisposing people to weight gain.
About 40% of children with excess weight will continue to be heavy during their teenage years, and 75−80% of teenagers with obesity will maintain this condition into adulthood (8Trusted Source).
2. Birth, infancy, and childhood habits
Though the reason is unknown, children born via C-section seem more prone to obesity later in life (9Trusted Source, 10Trusted Source).
This is also true for formula-fed infants, who tend to be heavier than breastfed babies (11Trusted Source, 12Trusted Source, 13Trusted Source).
This may be because the two groups develop different gut bacteria, which can affect fat storage (14Trusted Source).
It’s important to note that these factors are generally not made by choice of either the mother or baby yet seem to be linked to the child’s obesity risk.
Additionally, forming healthy dietary and exercise habits during childhood may be the most valuable prevention against obesity and lifestyle-related diseases.
If young children develop a taste for healthy foods instead of processed junk foods, it helps them maintain normal weight throughout their life.
3. Medications or medical conditions
Many medical conditions can only be treated with pharmaceutical drugs.
Weight gain is a common side effect of many such medications, including diabetes medications, antidepressants, and antipsychotics (15Trusted Source, 16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source).
These drugs may increase your appetite, reduce your metabolism, or even alter your body’s ability to burn fat, increasing your rate of fat storage.
Additionally, many common medical conditions can predispose you to weight gain. A key example is hypothyroidism.
4. Powerful hunger hormones
Hunger and uncontrollable eating are not just caused by greediness or lack of willpower.
Hunger is controlled by very powerful hormones and brain chemicals, involving areas of your brain that are responsible for cravings and rewards (18Trusted Source, 19Trusted Source).
These hormones function improperly in many people with obesity, which alters their eating behavior and causes a strong physiological drive to eat more.
Your brain has a reward center, which starts secreting dopamine and other feel-good chemicals when you eat.
This is the reason why most people enjoy eating. This system also ensures that you eat enough food to get all the energy and nutrients you need.
Eating junk food releases much more of these feel-good chemicals than eating unprocessed food. This yields a much more powerful reward in your brain (20Trusted Source, 21Trusted Source, 22Trusted Source).
Your brain may then seek more reward by causing powerful cravings for these junk foods. This can lead to a vicious cycle that resembles addiction (23Trusted Source, 24Trusted Source, 25Trusted Source).
5. Poor nutrition education
In modern society, you’re confronted with endless advertisements, health statements, nutrition claims, and unhealthy foods.
Despite the importance of nutrition, children and adults are generally not taught how to eat properly.
Teaching children the importance of a healthy diet and proper nutrition has been shown to help them make better choices later in life (34Trusted Source, 35Trusted Source, 36Trusted Source).
Nutrition education is very important, especially when forming the dietary and lifestyle habits that you bring into adulthood
