Diet Information Weight Loss Management
More Articles on Weight Loss Management
Most people's primary motivation for weight management is
to improve their appearance. Equally important, however,
are the many other benefits of proper nutrition and
regular exercise.
Weight management through reduction of excess body fat
plays a vital role in maintaining good health and fighting
disease. In fact, medical evidence shows that obesity
poses a major threat to health and longevity. (The most
common definition of obesity is more than 25 percent body
fat for men and more than 32 percent for women.) An
estimated one in three Americans has some excess body fat;
an estimated 20 percent are obese.
Excess body fat is linked to major physical threats like
heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. (Three out of four
Americans die of either heart disease or cancer each year;
according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination
survey, approximately 80 percent of those deaths are
associated with life-style factors, including inactivity.)
For example, if you're obese, it takes more energy for you
to breathe because your heart has to work harder to pump
blood to the lungs and to the excess fat throughout the
body. This increased work load can cause your heart to
become enlarged and can result in high blood pressure and
life-threatening erratic heartbeats.
Obese people also tend to have high cholesterol levels,
making them more prone to arteriosclerosis, a narrowing of
the arteries by deposits of plaque. This becomes
life-threatening when blood vessels become so narrow or
blocked that vital organs like the brain, heart or kidneys
are deprived of blood. Additionally, the narrowing of the
blood vessels forces the heart to pump harder, and blood
pressure rises. High blood pressure itself poses several
health risks, including heart attack, kidney failure, and
stroke. About 25 percent of all heart and blood vessel
problems are associated with obesity.
Clinical studies have found a relationship between excess
body fat and the incidence of cancer. By itself, body fat
is thought to be a storage place for carcinogens
(cancer-causing chemicals) in both men and women. In
women, excess body fat has been linked to a higher rate of
breast and uterine cancer; in men, the threat comes from
colon and prostate cancer.
There is also a delicate balance between blood sugar, body
fat, and the hormone insulin. Excess blood sugar is stored
in the liver and other vital organs; when the organs are
"full," the excess blood sugar is converted to fat. As fat
cells themselves become full, they tend to take in less
blood sugar. In some obese people, the pancreas produces
more and more insulin, which the body can't use, to
regulate blood sugar levels, and the whole system becomes
overwhelmed. This poor regulation of blood sugar and
insulin results in diabetes, a disease with long-term
consequences, including heart disease, kidney failure,
blindness, amputation, and death. Excess body fat is also
linked to gall bladder disease, gastro-intestinal disease,
sexual dysfunction, osteoarthritiis, and stroke.
Reducing Body Fat Reduces Disease Risk
The good news is that reducing body fat reduces the risk
of disease. At the University of Pittsburgh, researchers
studied 159 people as they followed a weight management
program. The subjects were under age 45 and 30-70 pounds
overweight. Those subjects who were able to shed just
10-15 percent of their weight and keep it off during the
18-month study showed significant improvement in HDL
cholesterol and triglyceride levels, waist-to-hip ratio,
and blood pressure. In fact, according to the New England
Journal of Medicine, body fat reduction is a more powerful
modulator of cardiac structure than drug therapy.
In addition, regular physical activity and a low-fat diet
are successful in treating non-insulin dependent diabetes
for some patients, it has reduced or eliminated the need
for insulin substitutes. In general, regularly active
adults have 42 percent lower risk of developing.
The average person gains at least one pound of fat and
loses one pound of muscle a year after age 25. Think about
it. If you're like most Americans, by the time you're 50,
you're likely to gain 25 pounds of fat, or more. In
addition, your metabolism is also slowing down, causing
your body to work less efficiently at burning the fat it
has. At the same time, if you don't exercise regularly,
you lose a pound of muscle each year. Consequently, people
are not only increasing their body fat stores, increasing
their risk of disease, but they're also losing muscle,
increasing the risk of injury, decreasing activity
performance, and further slowing down metabolism.
Very few people exercise in any significant way. It is
estimated that only one in five people exercises for the
healthy minimum of 20 minutes, three or more days a week.
In fact, the average person gets less than 50 minutes of
exercise per week. Even worse, two out of five people are
completely sedentary.
But there is hope. moderate weight loss--of fat, not
muscle--and a healthy and active lifestyle--not
dieting--have been found to lower health risks and medical
problems in 90 percent of overweight patients, improving
their heart function, blood pressure, glucose tolerance,
sleep disorders, and cholesterol levels, as well as
lowering their requirements for medication, lowering the
incidence and duration of hospitalization, and reducing
post-operative complications eight times less likely to
die from cancer than the unfit, and 53 percent less likely
to die from other diseases. Fit people are also eight
times less likely to die from heart disease.
So, are you willing to be patient and make gradual changes
in your life that will lead to a healthier, happier you?
Once you have made the decision to go forward and accept
change, the hard part is over. Sure, there is plenty of
work to be done, but it really doesn't matter how long
this new process takes. If you allow changes to take place
over several years, your body will adjust comfortably, and
you will be more likely to maintain the healthy lifestyle
permanently.
When you begin achieving improvements in energy and
physical and psychological performance, the fun and
excitement you experience will make the change well worth
the effort. Action creates motivation! Good luck: I hope
you enjoy all the wonderful benefits of a safe and
effective weight management program.
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