What are the most common reasons for being overweight?

More than half of the population in Germany is overweight. Many overweight people actually still feel well for while. But being overweight in the long term causes a range of secondary illnesses which can greatly reduce quality of life and life expectancy.

Reasons for being overweight can be:

• Excess eating for emotional reasons: enjoyment, frustration, stress or boredom
• Imbalanced diet
• Lack of exercise
• Different illnesses or a metabolic disorder
• Insufficient or bad sleep
• Genetic disposition

The following may occur as secondary illnesses:

• High blood pressure
• Dyslipidemia
• Diabetes
• Arteriosclerosis, the hardening of the blood vessels. This can cause a premature heart attack or stroke
• Cancer

Being overweight and the secondary illnesses linked to this can be avoided by changing your lifestyle. This includes eating enough fruit and vegetables ("Five a Day"), sufficient exercise (WHO recommends 10,000 steps a day), low alcohol intake (max. 1 glass a day) as well as not smoking.