Obesity is now the second leading cause of demise among the population. This is a drastic condition of the modern age of food convenience, which now also unfortunately includes children. The primary reason being a poor diet.
Obesity and being overweight at times are often used interchangeably, but they have completely different meaning. Being overweight refers to excess body mass based on an individuals frame, which includes all body tissue. What being obese refers to is excessive unhealthy body fat on a person.
Someone who’s a weight lifter for instance, might be considered overweight because of their excessive weight that’s caused by large muscle mass, are not obese.
Obesity is what should be of concern for all, this since it’s detrimental to their health. Losing weight by adopting a better diet is usually the solution, but that’s easier said than done.
Reasons To Lose Weight
• Diabetes – It’s known that up to 90% percent of all Type 2 diabetics are obese, and it’s become one of the leading causes of ones early demise. This condition is also a leading cause of adult blindness.
The biggest cause of obesity is eating the wrong foods. These can include high glycemic foods, which are extremely energy dense that quickly elevates the level of blood glucose in the body, this immediately after they’re eaten.
What this results in is the body turning the unnecessarily excess of glucose into fat, which makes losing weight difficult.
Type 2 diabetes occurs because the body isn’t able to produce enough insulin to remove all of this excess blood glucose, then as a result stores it as body fat.
This occurs after the insulin production has been strained for some time, and the reason why one ends up obese and diabetic.
• Stroke – Obesity builds up fatty deposits in the arteries, which is known as arteriosclerosis, causing them to narrow, which delays the flow of blood while increasing the risk of blood clots. One of the main arteries at risk supplies blood to the brain.
If clotting occurs because of a narrowed artery, what it then does is blocks the blood supply to a specific region of the brain, which results in a stroke. Losing weight and a better diet reduces this risk.
• Respiratory Problems – What being obese does is it causes the lungs to shrink, forcing them to become smaller, while the chest walls become heavier which restricts the natural process of breathing in and out efficiently.
The most common respiratory problem is sleep apnea, which is related to snoring. Sleep apnea is a condition where an individual temporarily stops breathing for a split second while sleeping.
What happens is the soft tissue in the throat collapses around the air passage, this because of the excessive body weight which blocks it.
For those who are severely obese, sleep apnea can become a much more complicated condition because of hypo-ventilation, which is the accumulation of carbon dioxide, this to usually toxic levels.
This carbon dioxide then enters the bloodstream because of poor inadequate breathing. It’s known that losing weight is the most effective and surefire way to avoid sleep apnea.
• Urinary Incontinence – What this refers to is the involuntary release of urine usually at the most inopportune times. Being obese is a strong contributor to this condition.
A heavy abdomen, this because of excessive body fat deposits, can cause the valve in the urinary bladder to become weakened.
The extra weight places additional pressure on the bladder, which forces the urine to leak. This can occur when laughing, coughing, or sneezing, forcing the bladder valve to relax too much, resulting in the leakage.
Obesity is also a factor when it comes to bed wetting for children at night. This particular problem can become embarrassing, which is a strong motivator to lose body fat.
• Causes Varicose Veins – Which is also known as Venous Stratis Disease. What both the leg and the thigh muscles do is they’ll assist the heart in circulating blood, as all the other larger muscles in the body would.
These particular sets of muscles are involved in the pumping of blood, this against gravity back to the heart with the assistance of valves, which also closes to avoid the backward flow of blood.
Excessive belly fat increases the workload on these valves, this eventually causing damage. These damaged valves then forces the blood to back up because of gravity, which causes excessive pressure on the veins, forcing them to swell.
• High Blood Pressure – Not regulating ones Body Mass Index, or BMI, this based on their age is one of the strongest indicators when it comes to the risk of developing hypertension and high blood pressure. It’s known that one of the biggest reasons for hypertension is obesity.
Other Diseases And Health Related Issues
There are a host of other diseases along with health issues which are directly associated with obesity. These include gout, coronary heart disease, lower back pain, osteoarthritis, gall stones, and Rheumatoid Arthritis.
There are also certain pregnancy disorders such as maternal hypertension, neural tube defect, prenatal mortality, maternal hypertension, and gestational diabetes. Other known symptoms include impaired immune response, liver disease, body odor, and depression.
The Effects Of Weight Loss
What research shows is that even just modest weight loss of 10 pounds for anyone obese, reduces the risk of developing most of these conditions. For this reason alone, effective weight loss should be the priority for all.
Unfortunately most fall short, this mainly because of poor information and a lack of motivation. What a good weight loss program should result in is permanent fat loss, this based on a variety of fundamental factors.