Coursework: Understanding Obesity Unit 1 of 3

In order to understand the struggles of maintaining a healthy weight, I tried several classes on the website and app, Coursera. Most of their training is free unless you need a certificate. For some, you can even take the exams and write the required essays without paying any fees. So this is what I did. And even though I didn’t pay for Understanding Obesity, my completed course and grade appears on my Profile page (1).

As I write more posts, I’ll discuss some of these interesting and helpful courses. If you know of any reputable resources, please share them with me. Thanks!

Understanding Obesity is a four week course that is presented by the University of Edinburgh and in in English with subtitles available in many languages. It’s at a beginner level with multiple choice tests and two writing assignments. Your writing will be graded by your peers and you will also grade written assignments. But no worries – the quizzes may be attempted several times if you’d like. This is not difficult to understand – though it could be difficult to put the ideas into practice in your life!

We learn first that obesity is a worldwide problem with increasing incidence. Then we can begin to appreciate the difficulties in addressing this condition. Those who are restricting calories to lose – or even maintain weight – are battling against very real physiological responses our bodies developed over millennia. These effects include:

• Lower metabolic rate
• Decreased body temperature
• Lethargy
• Decreased immune response
• Intense feelings of hunger

This course also stresses the importance of using reputable sources – not accepting “information” from sources selling something, or social media based sites which may have a certain view to push on unsuspecting readers. I’ve really taken this to heart, which is why I’ve mainly tried to use science based sources here. This is also why you won’t find any affiliate links on my website.

I’ll pick up next time on some of the hormones at play with weight maintenance. Hopefully with increased knowledge we will be able to address the factors that make our journey difficult, but definitely not impossible.

(1). https://www.coursera.org/learn/understanding-obesity Included in this post are ideas from the first week of this course.