Obesity and Child Abuse: Are Those Who Suffer From Child Abuse More Likely to Face Obesity?

Obesity and child abuse can go hand in hand, thanks to the many psychological factors that can contribute to obesity.

The tragedy of child abuse can cause damage to a person’s self-esteem and self-worth long into adulthood.

Often, these problems can manifest themselves in eating disorders... creating a link between obesity and child abuse.

Eating disorders include:

• Overeating
• Anorexia
• Bulimia and
• Binge eating.

In each case, the person with the disorder may be hiding from problems they have in life that they don’t want to – or are unable to – face.

Instead of dealing with the problem, they turn to food as a comfort.

They may also find that eating is a part of their life that they can control, even while they feel very out of control in other areas.

Before long, the calories have added up and they have gained a significant amount of weight.

The connection between obesity and child abuse is a sad one on many levels.

For one, child abuse is a terrible thing to have to suffer through.

Its consequences go on for years, and are often not fully realized until years after the abuse has stopped.

To have to then suffer through the challenges of obesity as a result of the associated psychological factors just adds to the already tragic situation.

Armed with the right information, you can break the link between obesity and child abuse.

You can make healthy changes in your lifestyle that will help you see that food is not the answer to your problems.

With a:

• Healthy diet
• Exercise and
• counseling as needed

You can overcome the psychological factors that are causing you to be obese.

While this site is not designed to provide psychological counseling, we do understand that emotions play a huge role in eating disorders and urge you to seek support from a counselor or support group.

Beyond that, we can tell you that breaking the link between obesity and child abuse is on many levels the same as beating obesity for anyone with the condition – a difficult road, but one that you can manage.

By eating healthier and becoming more physically active, you can overcome obesity.

• Focus on eating foods that:
  Contain nutrients your body needs.

  Are also low in fat and low in calories.

• You can still eat foods that:
  Taste good

  Have a great deal of variety and

  Are appealing; just avoid ones that are over-processed or high in fat.

• Becoming more physically fit is a road that you can begin with one short walk.
• Add a few steps each day until you can walk (or run!) quite a distance.
• Make simple changes such as:
  Taking the stairs rather than the elevator

  Parking at the back of the parking lot.

• Take the dog for a long walk rather than just letting him run free in the dog park while you watch.
• Incorporate a proven, complete nutritional program into your daily life.
• Enhance your nutritional program with a complete mutivitamin supplement because no nutritional program is perfect.
• Use a behavior modification and motivational program that will help you stay on track with your nutritional plan.
• Exercise at home with your own:
  Treadmill

  Stairstepper

  Exercise bike

  Elliptical trainer

  Hand weights or

  An aerobic video.

• See what kinds of weight loss aids your health insurance covers such as:
  Hypnotism

  Gym membership discounts

  Nutritional counseling.

Even if you need to overcome obesity and child abuse, we believe that you are up for the challenge.

You’ll find lots of tips here to get you started.

So, go ahead.

Start losing weight right now.