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.
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.
