Back to Understanding Obesity
The University of Edinburgh

Understanding Obesity

In this course, we’ll look at the facts and misconceptions around obesity and discuss key physiological and psychological concepts around the brain’s control of appetite and body weight. We’ll consider the biological and environmental pressures that make it easy to gain weight (and hard to lose it!). Most importantly, we'll give you the opportunity to reflect on your own knowledge and assumptions around the subject. We deliver course materials as a mixture of videos, audio-only MOOCcasts, and a selection of short readings. There are short weekly quizzes, a peer-reviewed exercise, and discussion activities on the forum. These will help you prepare for the final project. In it, you are invited to demonstrate your evidence-informed understanding and express how you'll develop it beyond the course. The course features Citizen Science projects. We'll collect data from you (anonymously, of course) and use it to drive participant-led discussions of controversial ideas. In this way, we hope to explore ideas around diet and obesity. These projects also give a taste of how scientific evidence is collected and interpreted by scientists, and give some indication how much there still is to discover and understand. Learners can apply for Financial Aid directly with Coursera to assist with the cost of accessing the full course and gaining a certificate for successfully completing the course.

Status: Stress Management
Status: Peer Review
BeginnerCourse6 hours

Featured reviews

AJ

4.0Reviewed Jan 9, 2018

Great experienceThis was great experience, with thouthful insight’s. Looking forward for STEP 2 - Episode 2, “UNDERSTANDING OBESITY_Univ Edinburgh”…

MU

5.0Reviewed Sep 28, 2023

It is a very educational course in which you can learn a lot about the reasons of increasing rates of obesity.

NK

4.0Reviewed Mar 14, 2023

The course material and the videos were good and well organized. the interactiveness of the video could be more engaging. some animations, intro, highlights, and conclution could be great

RT

5.0Reviewed Oct 18, 2022

E​xcellent points of views are shared in this course which helps you view Obesity from other points of view.

A

5.0Reviewed Sep 18, 2023

after doing this I am able to decide about obesity solutions. also peer's opinion helped a lot while doing my peer graded assignment.

LS

5.0Reviewed May 6, 2018

This course was very helpful for me. I learn a lot and now Im implementing all the things that I learned here.

DD

5.0Reviewed Aug 14, 2022

It was a fanitastic ground-level course in understanding some of the psychology related to obesity. I enjoyed it!

AD

5.0Reviewed Aug 18, 2017

Very well addressed from different aspects. Helped forming a solid foundation to address the obesity problem as well as to make good food choices with portion control.

RC

5.0Reviewed Aug 19, 2020

The science behind the Obesity, its effects, addiction, control methods are explained clearly and helped to take a self motive step towards healthy living.

HA

5.0Reviewed Apr 25, 2020

enjoyed learning about obesity and learning to identify facts vs assumptions. I hope to help support people around me who have obesity issue.

IM

5.0Reviewed Aug 19, 2024

for understanding background of obesity i suggest you take this course, because its debunked the common perspective what causes it

CM

5.0Reviewed Mar 11, 2024

Great course, well presented with some thought provoking subjects. Recommended for anyone interested in Nutrition

All reviews

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