Taking care of your weight is one of the most important things that you can do to maximize your chances of living a long and healthy life. The good news is that if you are overweight, you don’t need to slim down to a ‘perfect’ size in order to reap the health benefits – every pound that you lose can help, which is great motivation to get started.
Carrying excess weight means increasing the risk of health problems, either as a direct result of being heavier or from the likelihood of developing diseases in later life. Being aware of this is the first step to feeling more in control of your weight and your health.
must know
Stop smoking
Smoking is a bigger hazard to health than being overweight, yet some people - especially women - smoke to help keep their weight down. Giving up smoking does not mean you will automatically put on weight but weight gains of 1.8–3.2 kg (4–7 lb) are common; this seems to be because food tastes better and people snack more rather than any physiological reason. Trying to stop smoking and lose weight at the same time is a big job. Tackle smoking first, aiming to minimize any weight gain by eating healthily and being as active as possible – and then make your weight a priority.
Awareness, not worry
Good health would be top of most people’s list of ingredients for a happy life, and in an ideal world, we would choose to avoid illness and disability if we possibly could. In the real world, of course, we have to play with the cards that life deals us, and many of the factors that determine our long-term health are beyond our control.
However, that does not mean that we should not try to change the odds in our favour whenever we can do so. The overwhelming evidence, from scientific research that has been carried out around the world, is that managing our weight is one of the optimum ways to give ourselves the best possible chance of living a long, healthy and active life.
Consumer studies suggest, however, that improving their health is not always the main reason why people start a diet or fitness regime. About half of slimmers, especially younger ones, say that they want to lose weight in order to look better in clothes, or for a special occasion such as a forthcoming holiday or wedding. And that’s absolutely fine!
It is fantastic to know that you look your best, and to be able to wear whatever you want and to enjoy looking at your holiday photos instead of dreading them.
All too often, for health to become the main motivator to embark on a slimming regime it takes a crisis: perhaps your doctor warns that your blood pressure is too high, or recommends you lose weight before trying for a baby, or you find that you are increasingly breathless and uncomfortable.
But health can be a positive motivator as well as a cause of fear and worry. Skim through this section, and you will see that while some of the health implications of being overweight are serious, it does not take a massive weight loss to reduce your risk of developing problems, or to improve symptoms that might be bothering you already. If you only have a little weight to lose, knowing that you are benefitting your health by reaching and maintaining your target weight can be a deep source of satisfaction – in addition to the joys of shopping for smaller clothes.
must know
Weight gain is easy
It takes about 3,500 surplus calories to put on 0.45 kg (1 lb) of fat, which sounds like a lot until you consider that eating just 80 calories more than you need each day (that’s only one chocolate digestive) could lead to a weight gain of 3.6 kg (8 lb) in a year!
Facts of life
Can you be overweight and healthy? The answer is yes – and no. Of course your overall health depends on many risk factors, such as your family history, whether you smoke or drink heavily, your fitness level, where you carry your weight and so on. If being overweight is your only risk factor, then you have more chance of remaining in good health than someone who ticks a lot of ‘risk’ boxes. And there will always be overweight people who reach a hale and hearty old age without losing a pound.
Unfortunately, however, statistics show that if you are overweight you are unlikely to be one of those people – they are the exception that proves the rule. Here are five disturbing facts, which come from UK National Health Service-endorsed studies:
must know
Being underweight
Being underweight (BMI of 18.5 or less) is a health hazard, and can lead to loss of fertility in women, lower resistance to infection, osteoporosis and a lack of vital vitamins and minerals. Extreme loss of weight can also indicate eating disorders, such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa, which require careful and specialized treatment.
Why weight is to blame
It is easy to imagine why being overweight can cause certain health problems – breathlessness or pain in weight-bearing joints such as the knees and lower spine. Some medical conditions, however, have a more complex relationship with weight. As we saw earlier, a BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 is thought to be within the desirable ‘healthy’ range, so, in theory, any weight gain that takes your BMI above 25 is potentially a risk to your health. It is generally accepted though that the risk of serious conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, rises significantly at a BMI of around 27 or above.
So why worry if you are only a few pounds overweight? The trouble is that extra pounds can have a habit of creeping up on us unawares. So if your BMI hovers around the 25 level, it makes sense to keep your weight stable or to lose a few pounds. And, of course, if your BMI is unhealthily high, slimming will quickly bring big benefits.
Weight-related health problems
Below is some background information to the most common weight-related health problems that may develop.
Coronary heart disease
One of the key aspects of heart health is the ability of the heart and its surrounding arteries to circulate blood strongly and freely round the body. Being overweight can damage heart health in a number of ways, mainly by raising the level of unhealthy fats, such as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides, in the blood. A build-up of these fats over time can narrow or clog the arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis, and this in turn can lead to chronic diseases such as angina, or acute conditions such as a heart attack.