Your heart is a muscle that functions like a pump to circulate blood through the arteries and veins of your body. Your blood carries oxygen and nutrients that support the healthy functioning of your body’s tissues. Obesity can interfere with this process by contributing to cardiovascular disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes. However, it also can harm the heart muscle more directly.  When a person is obese, that person’s volume of circulating blood goes up. This means that the heart has to pump a greater volume of blood with each heartbeat, which puts strain on the heart over time.

Also, the heartbeat is governed by a series of electrical impulses in the heart muscle. Essentially, your heart has a natural pacemaker. Obesity can cause abnormal heart rhythms called arrhythmias, which, when severe, can lead to the heart stopping (cardiac arrest).rest). 

Obesity is associated with heart failure and atrial fibrillation (AFib), these diseases are increasing in epidemic proportions, and both increase the prevalence of cardiovascular disease events. Obesity has adverse effects on cardiovascular hemodynamics and cardiac structure and function.