What is the cause of postpartum obesity?

Many women become obese after giving birth. This obesity not only affects their appearance, but also has a great impact on women's psychology. Not only that, if the obesity is more serious, the probability of diabetes is higher. In addition, it is easy to develop high blood pressure and hyperlipidemia. Excessive obesity can also easily lead to heart disease, so the harm is very serious. So what is the cause of obesity in postpartum women?

What is the cause of postpartum obesity?

1. Changes in physical constitution: Qi and blood deficiency is a common phenomenon in women after childbirth. At this time, most women experience meridian blockage, Qi stagnation and blood stasis, and a lower basal metabolic rate. This invisibly affects the body's normal recovery and may also hinder the normal metabolic level of fat.

2. Changes in physiological structure

(1) Endocrine changes: During pregnancy, women’s hypothalamic gonadal function is temporarily disrupted, resulting in an imbalance in fat metabolism and causing obesity.

(2) Pregnancy: The weight gain from the fetus, placenta and amniotic fluid accounts for about half of a woman's total weight gain after childbirth. In other words, the more weight a woman gains during pregnancy, the more fat she may have after childbirth.

(3) Edema: During pregnancy, the growing size of the uterus creates a pressure that blocks venous return in the body's circulatory system, resulting in varying degrees of gestational edema. During delivery and after childbirth, a large amount of blood returns to the circulatory system, causing postpartum swelling of the body.

3. Changes in exercise volume: Postpartum women need to rest and recuperate, increase sleep, and exercise less, which leads to a sharp decrease in heat energy consumption and causes obesity.

4. Negative emotions: Anxiety, irritability, anger, sadness, rage and other negative emotions can cause dysfunction of women's endocrine system, affect the body's metabolism, and cause obesity and other problems. It is best for women to maintain an optimistic mood after giving birth and avoid negative emotional stimulation.

In addition, some women's postpartum obesity may also be due to pathological causes, such as Cushing's syndrome, decreased sexual function, hypothyroidism, drug-induced, subcutaneous obesity, visceral fat, pituitary, etc. Therefore, women should also undergo physical examinations after childbirth. Once obesity is confirmed to be caused by pathological factors, active treatment should be sought to avoid harm to their health.