How to understand that excess weight is due to endocrinological problems, and not because I eat too much?

You are overweight anyway because you eat too much. Too much for your body. However, you may already have endocrinological problems. Nevertheless, even if you have global problems with hormones, if you stop eating more calories than you spend, or start spending more than you eat, your weight will drop.

This is a fairly simple and absolute truth - that whoever eats more than burns gets fat. And vice versa. And no hormones can make you gain weight if you eat less than you burn calories.

This question only seems simple, it is impossible to answer it in a nutshell.

Endocrine obesity accounts for only 5-10% of all cases of overweight. As a rule, such patients have characteristic external signs that allow one to suspect endocrine causes of obesity. If, along with weight gain, you begin to notice weakness, drowsiness, chilliness, decreased attention and mood, swelling and peeling of the skin, it is quite possible that the cause is a decrease in thyroid function (hypothyroidism). This assumption is easy to verify (the doctor will prescribe a test after the examination, which should include a blood test for TSH). If there are pronounced changes in appearance (the face has changed, wide red / lilac streaks of stretch on the skin have appeared, libido has decreased and / or the menstrual cycle has been disrupted), the height, shoe size has changed, muscle weakness has appeared - then we can talk about serious endocrine disorders in the work of the pituitary gland or adrenal glands (fortunately, they are rare). A sharp increase in appetite, poor hunger tolerance can also be alarming symptoms. A special examination will help to find out the cause of the complaints.

Most cases of excessive accumulation of adipose tissue in the body refer to the so-called alimentary obesity, when the intake of energy (calories) in the body regularly exceeds its consumption.

Of course , not everything is so simple, and there are many factors that predispose to the development of obesity. We cannot change some of them (for example, genetic causes, metabolic characteristics), but we can influence many others (the nature of diet, physical activity). But even in the case of alimentary obesity, the excess adipose tissue itself disrupts the metabolism of many substances and affects the secretion of hormones, i.e. hormonal disorders in this case are not a cause, but a consequence of excess body weight. More dangerous is fat, which is deposited mainly in the abdomen (male-type obesity, or “apple” type). The greater the excess of adipose tissue, the more difficult it is for a person to get out of the vicious circle, therefore simple advice "you need to eat less and move more" is not suitable for people with pronounced excess body weight - they need a different approach (special programs to change lifestyle, drug support, help psychotherapist to change eating behavior, surgical treatment).