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Types of Obesity: Abdominal, Hormonal, and Genetic Explained

You eat carefully. You try to stay active. But the weight keeps climbing anyway.

If that sounds familiar, you are not alone, and honestly, it is probably not your fault. Weight gain is not always about eating too much or moving too little. Where your body stores fat, how your hormones behave, your genetic makeup, these things influence weight far more than most people are told.

Obesity is not one condition with one fix. It shows up differently in different people, and the reasons behind it vary just as much. Figuring out which type is at play for you is what actually makes treatment work.

Not sure why your weight keeps rising despite your best efforts? Madhavbaug’s specialists can help identify the real cause. Book an appointment today.

What Is Obesity and How Is It Classified?

At its simplest, obesity means excess body fat that puts your health at risk. Doctors use BMI as a first screening tool. It is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in metres squared, and it groups people roughly like this:

  • 18.5 to 24.9: Healthy weight
  • 25 to 29.9: Overweight
  • 30 to 34.9: Class 1 obesity, moderate risk
  • 35 to 39.9: Class 2 obesity, high risk
  • 40 and above: Class 3, sometimes called morbid obesity, very high risk

Here is the thing though. BMI does not tell you nearly enough. Two people can have identical BMI scores and face completely different health risks depending on where their fat sits and what is driving it. A woman with most of her fat around the abdomen faces a very different cardiac risk than someone carrying weight on their hips and thighs. The number alone does not capture that. This is why the type of obesity matters as much as the classification.

What Are the Types of Obesity?

Most people fall into more than one category, which is part of why generic diet plans produce such inconsistent results.

Type Primary Cause Where Fat Sits Key Signs
Abdominal Diet, stress, inactivity, poor sleep Around the Belly  Waist above 80 cm (women), 90 cm (men)
Hormonal Thyroid, PCOS, insulin resistance, cortisol Abdomen, face, upper body Weight gain despite normal eating, fatigue, irregular periods
Genetic Inherited metabolic tendencies often all over Family history of obesity, slow metabolism, strong hunger signals

Abdominal Obesity

This is the type most commonly seen in India, and from a health standpoint, it is the most serious one.

Abdominal obesity is not just fat you can pinch around your waist. The more dangerous part is visceral fat, the fat that wraps around your internal organs and sits deep inside the abdomen. This fat does not just sit there quietly. It releases inflammatory compounds that damage blood vessels, interferes with how the body processes insulin, and significantly raises the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease.

For Indians, the thresholds to watch are a waist above 90 cm in men and above 80 cm in women. Even if your overall weight looks fine on paper, crossing these numbers is worth taking seriously.

What tends to drive abdominal fat:

  • Refined carbs, sugar, ultra-processed food
  • Sitting for long stretches with minimal movement
  • Ongoing stress
  • Disrupted or insufficient sleep
  • Regular alcohol consumption

Hormonal Obesity

This is probably the most commonly missed type, especially in Indian women.

When weight keeps creeping up despite no real change in eating habits, hormones are often the reason. A few of the main culprits:

  1. Hypothyroidism slows the thyroid down, which slows the metabolism right along with it. The body burns fewer calories even at rest and starts storing more fat. People often notice unexplained weight gain, constant tiredness, hair thinning, feeling cold more than usual, and dry skin, sometimes for months before a diagnosis is made.

  2. PCOS triggers insulin resistance, which pushes the pancreas to produce more insulin than the body needs. High circulating insulin is one of the most powerful fat-storage signals the body has, and it tends to direct that fat straight to the abdomen.

  3. Insulin resistance on its own, even without a PCOS or diabetes diagnosis, is far more common in Indians than most people realise. It builds quietly, makes fat loss feel nearly impossible, and often goes undetected without specific testing.

  4. Chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated day after day. Long hours, financial strain, poor sleep, emotional pressure, all of it adds up. Persistently high cortisol drives fat toward the abdomen and makes the body resist weight loss even when calorie intake is low. In urban India, this is one of the most underappreciated obesity risk factors there is.

Cutting calories will not fix any of this. The hormonal imbalance driving the gain needs to be identified and treated first.

Genetic Obesity

Genetics play a bigger role than most people are comfortable admitting.

Some people genuinely are wired differently. Their metabolism runs slower. Their hunger signals are stronger and harder to override. Their bodies are more efficient at converting food into stored fat. Their cells are more prone to insulin resistance. None of this is a character flaw; it is biology.

Genetic factors that can contribute:

  • Naturally slower baseline metabolism
  • Reduced ability to feel full after eating
  • Stronger tendency to store rather than burn calories
  • Higher inherited risk of insulin resistance

If obesity has been a pattern across generations in your family, particularly appearing early in life, there is a real biological component involved. That does not mean nothing can be done. It means the approach needs to account for it properly.

What Are the Main Risk Factors of Obesity?

Individual choices matter, but they are influenced by many other factors. In India, the environment itself has become a significant driver of weight gain.

  • Food culture has shifted sharply toward processed, packaged, calorie-dense options
  • Work and urban lifestyles have become increasingly sedentary
  • Chronic stress and poor sleep are widespread, especially in cities
  • Affordable, nutritious food is often harder to access than convenient junk food

When these external pressures stack on top of hormonal imbalances or genetic tendencies, weight gain becomes much harder to reverse without proper, targeted support.

How Madhavbaug Can Help

If you have tried repeatedly to lose weight and the results never stick, the problem is likely not effort. It is that the root cause has never been properly identified or treated.

Madhavbaug takes a different approach. Weight is treated as a metabolic and cardiac health concern, not just a lifestyle issue.

The team works with you to:

  • Find the actual root cause: abdominal, hormonal, genetic, or a combination
  • Run full metabolic and cardiac diagnostics, not just a basic check
  • Build a treatment plan personalised to your profile: Ayurvedic therapies, dietary correction, physiotherapy
  • Focus specifically on visceral fat, not just the number on the scale
  • Track progress and adjust the plan as your body responds

Treatments like thermal vasodilatation and Ayurvedic protocols go after visceral and subcutaneous fat while addressing the underlying metabolic damage, not just the surface weight.

This is not a standard diet programme. It is a medically supervised approach built around what is actually driving your weight gain.

Ready to find out what is really going on? Visit madhavbaug.org to book your consultation today.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What are the 3 classes of obesity?

Class 1 is BMI 30 to 34.9 (moderate risk), Class 2 is BMI 35 to 39.9 (high risk), and Class 3 is BMI 40 and above, also called morbid obesity (very high risk).

  1. What are the 5 symptoms of obesity?

The five most common symptoms are persistent fatigue, breathlessness during light activity, joint pain in the knees and lower back, excessive sweating, and skin darkening around the neck or underarms.

  1. What fat is hardest to lose?

Visceral fat, stored deep around the abdominal organs, is typically the hardest to lose due to its strong link with hormones and metabolism.

  1. What are the main risk factors and reasons for obesity?

Obesity is influenced by a combination of factors including poor diet, lack of physical activity, genetics, hormonal imbalances, stress, and inadequate sleep.

  1. How is obesity classified and what are the common types?

Obesity is commonly classified using BMI, but it can also be grouped into types such as abdominal obesity, hormonal obesity, and genetic obesity based on underlying causes and fat distribution.

References

  1. World Health Organization (2025) Obesity and overweight.
    Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

  2. MDPI (2025) Obesity: Genetic Insights, Therapeutic Strategies, Pharmacoeconomic Impact, and Psychosocial Dimensions. Obesities, 5(4), p. 86.
    Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4168/5/4/86

  3. Bila, J., Dotlic, J., Andjic, M., Ivanovic, K., Micic, J., Tulic, L., Pupovac, M., Stojnic, J., Vukovic, I. and Ivanovic, S., 2025. Obesity as a Part of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), A Review of Pathophysiology and Comprehensive Therapeutic Strategies. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14(16), p.5642.
    Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/14/16/5642

Disclaimer: The content on this website is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for medical advice. Please consult a qualified Madhavbaug Ayurvedic doctor before starting any treatment.

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