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It's important to tell your doctor if you have other symptoms besides difficulty controlling your weight. Your weight problem may be part of another medical condition.¹

Tell your doctor if you feel:

• Very tired
• Cold
• Short of breath.

If you're a woman, tell your doctor if:

• Your periods become irregular
• You get lots of hair on your body, or hair on your face. These things can be a sign of a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome.

A condition called Cushing's syndrome can make you gain weight, especially on your face and around your waist. It means your body is making too many corticosteroids. These are chemicals that control how your body uses fat and sugar. If you have too many corticosteroids, you can feel tired, hungry and bloated.

It may happen when a lump grows in your adrenal glands. These glands lie on the surface of your kidney. Your adrenal glands make corticosteroids. The lump makes your body produce extra corticosteroids. Cushing's syndrome can also happen when lumps grow on your pituitary gland or another part of your body.

This means that your thyroid gland is not working properly. Your thyroid gland is a small gland at the front of your neck. It makes a chemical that helps to control how much energy your body uses (it changes your metabolic rate).

If you have hypothyroidism, your thyroid gland doesn't make enough of this chemical. This means that your metabolic rate slows down. So you burn fewer calories, and you're more likely to gain weight.

To read more, see our information on Underactive thyroid.

This condition is caused by a lump (tumor) in your pancreas. The tumor makes your pancreas produce extra insulin, a chemical your body uses to control the amount of sugar in your blood.

The extra insulin changes sugar into fat. And you may not have enough sugar left in your blood. So your brain tells you that you feel hungry and you may eat more.

If a tumor grows in the parts of your brain that control your appetite and the amount of energy your body uses, your brain won't do its job very well. So you may gain weight. But it's not likely this would be the only symptom.

Only women can get this condition. It's often called PCOS for short. It means that small cysts (small bags of fluid, like blisters) may grow in the ovaries. Women who have PCOS don't release eggs (ovulate) regularly. It happens because of an upset in the balance of certain hormones.

About half the women with this condition are obese. But we don't know which comes first: the condition or the obesity. If your periods stop or become irregular and you put on weight at the same time, it's important to tell your doctor. Lots of unwanted hair on your body or face can also be a sign of polycystic ovary syndrome.

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.