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 - Losing
Body Fat
The good news is that losing 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.
For people with a family history of heart disease,
an active lifestyle can slow or stop the process for all but those
with serious genetic disorders. Studies by Dean Ornish, MD, have
shown that a comprehensive intervention program that includes
regular physical activity, a low-fat diet and a stress reduction
program can even reverse the heart disease process.
Evidence also shows that an active lifestyle
and its help in reducing body fat is associated with a reduced
risk for some types of cancers: prostate for men, breast and uterine
cancers for women. (Frisch, et al 1985)
In addition, regular physical activity and a
low-fat diet are successful in treating non-insulin dependent
diabetes (NIDDM); 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 NIDDM.
Gaining Weight Happens to Most of Us
The average American gains at least one pound
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 Americans exercise in any significant
way. The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports estimates
that only one in five Americans exercises for the healthy minimum
of 20 minutes, three or more days a week. In fact, the average
American gets less than 50 minutes of exercise per week. Even
worse, two out of five Americans are completely sedentary.
The Answer: Healthy Eating and Physical Fitness
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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