Why Am I Overweight? |
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From your ideal weight to about 10 per cent over is mild overweight and is not associated with significant health risks. In fact, mildly overweight people tend to live longer than very underweight people. It has been a popular myth that to be skinny is to be healthy. Research shows that isn't true. If underweight is your problem, we suggest you follow much the same program as we are suggesting for overweight, believe it or not. Plan a sensible eating program to maintain that ideal weight and start eating. Combine that with a healthy exercise program and you will ensure that your weight gain is muscle as well as fat. You should also pay realistic attention to the goal-setting. If you come from a skinny family line, you will probably tend to be slim yourself. From 10 to 20 per cent over your ideal weight is moderate overweight. While this is not associated with the same degree of health risk as serious overweight, you are headed in the risky direction. If you have already arrived at moderate over weight, there is a good chance that your lifestyle will slowly nudge you into serious overweight. Then you will have that much more weight to lose to get back to a healthy weight. So our advice is to begin a weight loss program if you are now more than 10 per cent over your ideal weight. Of course, if you are 20 per cent or more over your ideal weight, that is serious overweight with serious health risks and you should definitely be starting a weight loss program. A special word to men: A lthough all the surveys of body, weight show that more men than women are overweight, it is women who are much more likely to take part in weight lost programs. While women may be partly motivated by questionable cultural stereotypes about what makes a woman attractive, at least they are trying to lose some weight. Men, it seems, are more inclined to say it doesn't matter: 'After all, it's just a beer pot (or a little middle-aged spread).' This is at unfortunate attitude for men to adopt because it now appear that overweight is a bigger health risk for men than women. In1987 Professor Albert Stunkard from' the University o Pennsylvania, a pioneer in obesity research, pointed out that men tend to accumulate fat in their upper bodies. This upper body fat is associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. Women tend to accumulate fat in their ?owe bodies, which does not have the same degree of health risk. So the same degree of overweight is more likely to be a health rill in a man than a woman. Better take this to heart, fellers and start losing some weight or you take it to heart in a less desirable way. |
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