Obesity happens when your calorie intake is higher than the amount of energy you burn off each day. Think of the food you eat as fuel. This fuel is meant to power you and as you move throughout your day, you burn off this fuel. However, if you take in too much fuel, it isn’t burned off. This just sits in your body, not serving its purpose.

There can be many reasons why weight gain happens, and often it’s more than one reason at a time. Some of the factors that can add to weight control issues include:

• Environmental factors: Lifestyle behaviors, like what you eat and how active you are on an average day, can impact your weight.
• Psychological factors: Eating can be linked to your emotions. We eat to celebrate something good and we eat to grieve something sad. The emotional side of food can lead to things like eating due to depression, anxiety, boredom and binge eating. Binge eating is when you eat a large amount of food at one time, while often feeling out of control of how much you eat.
• Genetic and Environmental factors: Obesity can run in your family. This means that if you have family members who are overweight or obese, you might have an increased risk. It’s unclear if this is from your genetic code, or lifestyle behaviors (diet and exercise) that are passed down through generations. However, many people with family members who are overweight are not themselves overweight.
• Medical conditions: Sometimes, a medical condition or medication can actually lower your metabolism (ability to burn calories into energy), which can cause obesity. Medications like steroids and antidepressants can cause weight gain. Medical conditions can include: