Generally, obesity is associated with a large number of diseases which can severely impact health and quality of life:

• Disturbed lipid levels (e.g. high cholesterol)
• Diabetes mellitus
• Hypertension
• Cardiovascular diseases (e.g. heart failure and stroke)
• Sleep apnoea
•  Gallstones
• Infertility, sometimes combined with male body hair distribution in women
• Gout (painful joint arthritis due to high uric acid rates)
• Deterioration of the joints (knee, hip, ankle)
• Certain types of cancer (colon, esophagus, pancreas, uterus, lymphomas)
• Depression and other mental disorders

Often the medical treatment of the above mentioned diseases only releases the symptoms but not the causes of the disease. The successful treatment of obesity (in terms of weight loss) improves the comorbidities significantly without any medication. An effective and long-term weight loss is not easy to achieve and requires high motivation. Ideally, taking the opportunity of professional coaching can be very supportive.

Obesity also impairs the quality of everyday life: Prejudice leads to discrimination and overweight people often develop a strong sense of shame avoiding social settings and situations (restaurant, swimming pool). Social isolation and a low self-esteem can be the result of it.

Binge-eating is characterized by consuming large quantities of food in a very short period of time. Individuals usually feel out of control during such an episode, followed by feelings of guilt and shame. It is important to recognize such an eating disorder and to treat it psychologically, sometimes combined with pharmaceutical therapy.