The Business Update

The good news is that reducing body fat reduces the risk of disease. At the University of Pittsburgh, researchers studied 159 people when they followed a weight management program. The subjects were under 45 years of age and 30-70 pounds overweight. They are able to reduce sufficiently 10-15 percent of their weight and maintain it during the 18-month study showed significant improvements in HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, waist-to-hip ratio, and blood pressure. In fact, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, reduction of body fat are more potent modulators of heart structure than drug therapy.

Evidence also suggests that an active lifestyle and helps in reducing body fat was associated with a reduced risk of some types of cancers: prostate for men, breast and cervical cancer for women.

In addition, regular physical activity and low-fat diets are successful in treating non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM); for some patients, it has reduced or eliminated the need for insulin replacement. In general, active adults who regularly have 42 percent lower risk for developing NIDDM.

Added Weight Happens to Most of Us

Americans on average increased at least one pound per year after age 25 years. Think about it. If you’re like most Americans, when you’re 50, chances are you’ll gain 25 pounds of fat, or more. In addition, your metabolism also slows down, causing your body to work less efficiently at burning fat. At the same time, if you do not exercise regularly, you lose a pound of muscle every year. As a result, people are not only increasing their body fat stores, increasing the risk of disease, but they are also losing muscle, increasing the risk of injury, decreasing activity performance, and then slows metabolism.

Healthy Eating and Physical Fitness

But there is hope. Moderate weight loss (fat) not muscle, and a healthy and active lifestyle (not diet), has been found to lower health risks and medical problems in 90 percent of overweight patients, improving cardiac function, blood pressure, glucose tolerance, impaired sleep, and cholesterol levels, and reduce their need for treatment, the lower the likelihood and duration of hospitalization, and reduce post-operative complications eight times more likely to die from cancer than the unhealthy, and 53 percent less likely to die of other diseases. People fit also exposed to eight times lower chance of dying from heart disease.

So, are you willing to be patient and make gradual changes in your life that will lead to healthier and happier? Once you have made the decision to go forward and accept the changes, the hard part is over. Sure, there are a lot of work to do, but do not need to care how long the new process requires. If you run the change lasts for several years, your body will adjust comfortably, and you will be more likely to maintain a healthy lifestyle permanently.

The main motivation of most people to control weight is to enhance their appearance. Equally important, there are many other benefits of proper nutrition and regular exercise.

Weight control through reducing excess body fat plays a crucial role in maintaining good health and fighting disease. In fact, medical evidence shows that obesity is a major threat to health and longevity. (The most common definition of obesity more than 25 percent body fat for men and more than 32 percent for women)

Excess body fat is associated with 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 a survey of National Health and Nutrition Examination, about 80 percent of those deaths are associated with lifestyle factors, including inactivity)

For example, if you’re obese, it takes more energy to breathe because your heart must work harder to pump blood to the lungs because of the excess fat throughout the body. Increased work load can cause your heart becomes enlarged and can lead to high blood pressure and heart rate erratic life-threatening.

Obese people also tend to have high cholesterol levels, making them more prone to arteriosclerosis, a narrowing of the arteries by plaque deposits. This becomes life threatening when blood vessels become so narrow or blocked that vital organs such as brain, heart or renal anemia. In addition, the narrowing of blood vessels forces the heart to pump harder, and blood pressure will increase. High blood pressure itself poses some health risks, including heart attack, kidney failure, and stroke. About 25 percent of all heart and vascular problems associated with obesity.

Clinical studies have found an association between excess body fat and cancer incidence. By itself, body fat storage is considered as a carcinogen (cancer-causing chemicals) in men and women. In women, excess body fat has been associated with higher rates of breast and cervical cancer, in men, the threat comes from colon and prostate cancer.

There is also a 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,” excess blood sugar is converted into fat. As fat cells themselves become full, they tend to take less blood sugar. In some obese people, the pancreas produces more and more insulin, the body can not be used, to regulate blood sugar levels, and the whole system becomes overwhelmed. This can result 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.