Obesity is a symptom of an unhealthy body, not the cause of it. When the body is not healthy, it does not have sufficient energy reserves to sustain survival. This depletion of energy causes the body to adjust its hormone levels to accommodate so fat burning hormones disengage (stop working correctly). This happens because the body is so starved of energy that it compensates by storing excess fat which is essentially, potential energy . Excess fat accumulation only happens when the overall diminishes ¦