What are the Symptoms of Obesity?

Obesity is an ever-more common problem in the UK. As of 2023, over a quarter of people in the UK were living with obesity, part of an upward trend since 2015. While there are a wide range of societal factors that can be seen as partly responsible for this (including an increase in sedentary work, the prevalence of cheaper ultra-processed foods and the coronavirus pandemic), this increase in obesity levels has knock-on effects down the line.

While obesity can increase your chances of experiencing a wide variety of major health conditions, ranging from cardiovascular disease and stroke to diabetes and depression, it can also bring a number of related symptom-based health concerns, each of which can require their own treatment. Read on to learn more about why reaching a healthy weight is so important.

How Does Obesity Affect the Body?

The most visible effect of obesity is excess adipose tissue (“body fat” or “fat”). The energy which we do not use from our food is stored by our body as adipose tissue – a collection of cells which hold that energy in the form of lipid molecules. When our supply of food runs low, our body can begin to burn this tissue to provide the energy to continue functioning; this is the basis for restriction diets and exercise leading to weight loss.

However, this extra tissue can lead to a host of other health issues, which in turn can lead to further problems.  

Fatigue and Respiratory Stress

Carrying extra weight around can make it harder to stay moving; your body will feel the strain much sooner, leading to tiredness and fatigue. This can also lead to fatigue throughout your day, not just when you are active; weight-related sleep apnoea can make it much harder to get a restful night’s sleep.

As your body is physically larger, your heart needs to work harder to pump blood around it; this can lead to extra strain on your entire cardiovascular system, and lead to respiratory stress (your body needing to draw in more air to get more oxygen, leading to being “out of breath” much easier).

Impacted Mobility

As a result of the above issues, you may find it harder to move regularly. In turn, this can lead to your muscles not being as well-maintained, making it harder to use them when you do move.

This results in a vicious cycle; it gets harder to move, so you move less, further making it hard to move. Other conditions related to obesity can also contribute to this; poor circulation can make standing difficult or painful, while fatigue can make even low-impact movement difficult.

Joint and Back Pain

The mechanical aspect of carrying extra weight also has its issues. Your skeletal system holds the weight of your body when you stand, move, or even while you are sitting. Extra weight can cause undue wear and tear to your muscles and joints, which can be much harder to heal with limited mobility.

This can also contribute to further issues with your mobility, as listed above.

Skin Disorders

There are a number of possible skin conditions that can come with obesity. The most common ones include striae (stretch marks), varicosities (varicose veins), folliculitis (infected hair follicles) and acrochordon (skin tags). Your risk of each of these is significantly increased with obesity; while they are mostly minor or cosmetic, issues such as cellulitis can be significantly more dangerous, leading to abcesses and systemic infections.

In some cases, these conditions can be caused or exacerbated by a lack of mobility. 

Self Esteem

While we have covered the physical side of obesity, it is important to consider the psychological side as well. One of the primary aspects of your mental health that can be affected is your self-esteem. This can be for a number of reasons: some people feel they look older when carrying extra weight, while others feel unattractive, find it difficult to find clothes that fit well, or find that being less able to be out and moving makes it more difficult to be social.

A lot of this can lie at the feet of society’s expectations of people; we are often presented with idealised versions of our bodies, crafted using not only high-end training routines and impossible diets, but also makeup, plastic surgery and heavy use of Photoshop or AI generation. It can feel hard to live up to such standards at the best of times; living with obesity can make these false representations even harder to square with your own experiences.

Disordered Eating

Obesity can cause issues with your body’s systems to determine how hungry you are. This is mostly controlled by various hormones; ghrelin causes your brain to crave food and leptin causes you to feel full, while glucagon and insulin allow your body to control your blood sugar levels (which can then lead to the release of more ghrelin or leptin as needed).

However, repeatedly eating while your body thinks you shouldn’t can lead to conditions such as insulin resistance. This makes you more likely to crave food even after you have eaten, pumping your blood sugar higher than it should be (and in turn increasing your risk of type 2 diabetes).

Disordered eating differs from an eating disorder; EDs tend to have fairly strict requirements to be diagnosed, while disordered eating can present in a number of ways. Disordered eating is simply any irregular eating behaviour which may not require a specific diagnosis.

Conclusion

Obesity can be a difficult condition to live with, and an even harder one to treat. While obesity treatments such as bariatric surgery (a form of weight loss surgery such as gastric bands or balloons) can be very effective, they are often only done on the NHS in the most extreme of circumstances. 

Here at Simple Online Pharmacy, we know that losing weight isn’t always as easy as it is presented. We offer not only a wide range of weight loss treatments, but also offer support in the form of our renu app and our Patient Care Team. 

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Updated 25/06/2025