The Physical And Psychological Effects Of Obesity In Teenagers

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The Physical and Psychological Effects of Obesity in Teenagers

Obesity in adolescents is a condition with severe effects on its victims’ health. The obesity of a person is determined by one’s body-mass index, or BMI, and calculated from the ratio between height and weight in kilograms/meter squared (Binns). In other words, people that “weigh more than 20 percent above the ideal weight for their height” are recognized as obese (Obesity 1). Factors during adolescence are contributing to the high rates of obesity in young adults ages 18-25, making adolescence a critical period for its development (Goodman 1). A recent survey found that obesity in teenagers ages 12-19 rose from 11 to 14 percent in 2001, adding 5 million more obese individuals (O’meara 1). Certain causes of obesity must be introduced to fully understand the severe effects of obesity. The most common causes of obesity are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a high fat diet, in combination with little to no exercise. These causes all directly contribute to increasing obesity in teenagers, according to an article in Pediatrics (Goodman 2). Obesity in teenagers can have multiple physical and psychological effects: depression, which is consistently associated with obesity; Type 2 diabetes, which can be a deadly, mutating disease; and cardiovascular conditions such as coronary heart disease and arterioscleroses.
Depression is a cause as well as an effect of obesity in teenagers. Depression leads to weight gain; weight gain leads to depression. Obesity often “engenders chronic embarrassment, shame, and guilt, all of which may lead to affective disorders” (Goodman 1). Teenage females normally are more concerned about being overweight than teenage males (Obesity 1).
Young female teenagers tend to become obsessed with the “ideal” look of having a slim, toned body, and get discouraged when the reflected image is less than perfect. Harvard M...