Are You At Risk?What Can you do about it?

Everywhere you turn today it seems that you read an article, see a television segment, or see an advertisement warning about overweight dangers.  Unfortunately, these overweight dangers are all too real and, lest you think that the risks are only for those suffering from these overweight dangers, think again.  There are loved ones, dependents, spouses, and colleauges that are affected when you suffer from a debilitating disease.

#1 Overweight Danger:Heart Disease and StrokeHigh blood pressure often develops in overweight individuals and that can lead to a stroke or a heart attack. It is estimated that one-third to one-half of all people with high blood pressure are overweight. The more overweight you are, the higher your blood pressure rises.  Besides the stroke and heart attack high, blood pressure can lead to blindness and kidney failure

#2 Overweight Danger:Breast, Endometrial, Gallbladder and Colon CancerWomen who are past menopause and who are overweight face a 50% higher chance of having breast cancer than their peers who are in normal weight ranges, and men in general who are overweight risk a 40% greater chance of having colon cancer. When it comes to gallbladder cancer, both men and women who are overweight face a 5 times greater chance of being diagnosed with it. Along with all of this bad news, it now appears that overweight individuals also have a higher risk of kidney, pancreas, rectum, esophagus, and liver cancer also.

#3 Overweight Danger:Type 2 DiabetesNo one really knows how a person comes down with type 2 diabetes but, we do know that 80% or more of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight. The laundry list of bad side effects you could suffer from type 2 diabetes include: blindness, amputation, kidney and nerve disease, and that is only the short list.

#4 Overweight Danger:OsteoarthritisThis threat causes stiffness and soreness in the joints of the body.  It can lead to joint replacement surgery and greatly affects the quality of life.  Being overweight is one of the top ten factors contributing to Osteoarthritis and losing weight is among the top ten things you can do to help relieve the symptoms.

#5 Overweight Danger:Sleep Apnea and Respiratory ProblemsSleep apnea which causes loud snoring, pauses in breathing and poor sleeping also can lead to other significant health issues such as a higher risk of stroke, heart disease, insomnia and mood disorders. Losing weight often reverses this condition and frees the sufferer from these affects.

Unfortunately, knowing about overweight dangers and deciding to lose weight does not make losing weight any easier.

What You Can Do About It.There is good news though; if you can lose 10% of your body weight, it reduces the risk of these diseases significantly. So set a goal of at least 10% of your body weight and begin today.  Then tomorrow you will see a new healthier you.

Moderation is the key in all things.

The first time most people use body fat percentage scales, they typically get a rating that is higher than they want. Sometimes, this causes completely the wrong reaction. A lot of people are in denial that they are overweight until they see the body fat scale measurement, at which point they freak out. They believe that they have to lose all the weight immediately. Many of these people take extreme measures towards dieting. Either they will completely starve themselves in an attempt to please the body fat scale, or else they will burn out too quickly and give up on losing weight. Neither of these are good options.

People always worry about weight nowadays. They want to be thinner than their friends, be able to fit into clothes that they could not fit into since high school, and look like the celebrities on TV. Weight, however, is not the issue. Body fat is. If you have too high a body fat rating, you are at risk of heart disease. Paradoxically, however, body composition that is too low on the body fat scale also puts strain on your heart. Whether you are one of the millions of obese Americans, or one of the many hundreds of thousands of underweight ones, a body fat scale can improve your health and perhaps save your life.

Although a lot of people go in for an electric body fat scale, you really can make do with an old-fashioned set of calipers. There are some simple measurements that you can do that can show body fat accurately enough. Typically, you are supposed to keep your body fat at somewhere around 5% of your mass. Although many athletes to go lower, below 3% can be unhealthy. Any lower rating on the body fat scale can be downright dangerous.

The best choice is to set incremental goals. It is very difficult to set goals for losing weight by percentage on the body fat scales. Usually, you will need an experienced trainer to do this. The problem is that, if you are exercising, you will gain muscle mass at the same time as you lose fat. This makes it very difficult to calculate goals for the body fat scales. It might be better to try to lose 5 or 10 pounds a month until you reach your desired body fat scale level.

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Your ideal weight depends on your how tall you are, your build, and whether your are a man or a woman. One of the best ways of calculating a healthy weight is to work out your body mass index (BMI) by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared. The ideal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. Your risk of number of health problems rises significantly from a BMI of 27 while anything over 29.9 is a serious health concern.
Another good check for healthy weight is to measure your waist. Women with a waist circumferences of over 88 cm (35 inches) and men with waists of more than 102 cm (40 inches) are much greater risk for disease. If you are overweight you have a greater chance of shortening your life. You will be the perfect candidates for developing high blood pressure, high colesterol, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, joint problems, gallbaladder disease, sleep and lung problems and a host of other terminal diseases. Abdominal body fat, the “apple shape”, is a higher rosk than the “pear shape”
Decide what is a healthy, achievable and sustainable weight for you and give yourself a time frame to achieve it. Take it very slowly (about a kilogram a month) as weight lost quickly comes back quickly. Set a number of short term goals so you have a sense of achievement, and reward yourself with non-food treats when you achieve them.
Know what you eat:
- Eat a balanced diet consisting of plenty of vegetables, fruit, legumes and cereals. Include low fat milk and diary products, lean meat and poultry.
- Prepare meals with little or no added fat, salt and sugar.
- Drink plenty of water each day. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation (1 – 2 drinks a day for woman, 2 -3 for men). However, if you’re trying to lose weight you should bear in mind that alcohol is low in nutrients and high in kilojoules.
- Look at your food portions, if you are in the habit of piling up your plate, try gradually easing back. Bulking up with fruit and vegetables gives essential fibre and helps stave off hunger.
- Don’t be hungry and don,t skip meals.
- Cut the fat. Learn how to cook tasty, balanced low fat meals. You don’t have to live on cottage cheese and carrot sticks.
- Choose foods with a low glycemic index (GI) such as fruits, vegetables, breakfast cereals (no sugars) and milk. They can help you lose weight while keeping you feeling fuller for longer.
Strength training increases your metabolism. Muscle burns more fuels (kilojoules or calories) at rest than does fat. Each day, a pound of muscle burns over 10 times as much as energy as a pound of fat just to maintain itself. So couple of extra pounds or kilos of muscle will automatically mean you burn off more food. Also, the stronger you are, the more likely you are to exercise, and you’ll look trimmer because you are toned.

There are those that walk amongst us who have followed all the advice, diligently dieted and exercised with genuine effort for long periods of time, yet still fail to lose their excess weight.
Even more heartbreaking for those of us who genuinely struggle with obesity are the accusations of sloth and laziness from those thin people who eat junk all day long and show no physical sign of their own gluttony. “Why can’t you just be like everyone else?”, they demand. “It must be all your own fault.”
“After all,” they say in derisory voice, “Losing weight is easy. Just eat less and exercise more. If you don’t lose weight, you are just weak willed.”
Every person who has never had a real problem thinks they know all the easy answers. All those underlying unwarranted generalisations we face from others just about every day of our lives is a little recognised yet very real and severe form of discrimination, based on the same types of wrong thinking as prejudice against race, skin color, creed, gender, and other well recognised forms of hatred.
In fact, life experience has taught me that the less a person actually knows about obesity and weight loss, the more they think they know.
I spent time a few years ago under the care of some of the most distinguished and knowledgable internationally renowned Professors researching weight loss and obesity from the University of Sydney and the Royal Prince Albert Hospital’s Obesity Clinic in Sydney, Australia. I will always remember what Professor Ian Caterson told me one day:
“The more we learn about obesity, the more we realise how little we really understand and how much more there is to discover.”
Would any of those permanently thin critics care to explain a man with whom I shared many physiotherapy and hydrotherapy sessions during my time on the program at the Obesity Clinic? He was normal down the left side of his body, though obese down the right side of his body only.
Next time someone verbally berates you for carrying excess body weight and tries to tell you how easy it is to be lean & trim, try asking them what they would recommend to that man that some of the top obesity researchers in the world don’t yet know.
Then, while your critic is looking dumbfounded and fumbling for some feeble explanation, hit them with a few more questions, such as:
1: Why do large birth weight babies have a dramatically higher rate of obesity than normal birth weight babies?
2: And, given the above, just what control do you think I’ve got over my birth weight?
3: Do you know what your metabolic rate is? If not, why do you presume to think you know mine?
4: Do you think everyone has identical norepinephrine levels? Oh, you don’t even know what norepinephrine is, huh?
5: Why do some people gain weight during stressful times while other people loss weight, irrespective of their eating patterns?
6: How do you expect an overweight person to even be capable of greater physical activity than a normal weight person?
7: Name me five minerals (not vitamins) that are vital for hormonal function, and explain which of these hormones has a different effect on brain signals related to appetite and metabolism.
8: Tell me what you know about Insulin Resistance Syndrome, what causes it, what its symptoms are, and how to treat it.
9: What has the least nutrient value to the human body – (a) 100 calories of pure fat, (b) 100 calories of pure protein, or (c) 100 calories of pure carbohydrate? (By the way – Your critic will probably answer Fat. The correct answer is C. The human body actually requires fats and proteins for various metabolic and physiological functions. Pure carbohydrate has no known unique use in the human body as the body can convert either fats or proteins as required into blood glucose, as it does with carbohydrate.)
10: Some of the most successful business people, scientists, philosophers and artists in the course of human history have struggled with obesity. Why do you think such successful and influential people who have changed the course of the world as we know it today are “weak willed”?
When you see the jaw of your critic drop to the floor, as they turn pale and look like they’ve been hit by a runaway train, when their silence shows that their ignorance and prejudice has been thoroughly exposed, just calmly walk away.
At this point, both of you now know that, even though you may carrying excessive body weight, it is your critic who has the bigger problem.

The government has pushed money towards the health service for years, and recently they?ve been releasing even more funds for promoting healthy lifestyles. The general opinion is if they could make the public aware of healthy living, less humans will be processed through hospitals, which is obviously commendable for the country. The main issue relating to this subject is obesity, a condition that may cause a whole host of diverse problems that will impact members of public both now and in later life. For the most part, healthy living slows down aging and helps combat disease, but also does smaller things like improving moods and one’s self-confidence. To summarise, should a being live a textbook healthy lifestyle, they are much more likely to adore a superior first-rate of life.
As discussed in the elementary paragraph, one of the main problems for those who don?t abide by a healthy lifestyle is obesity. Obesity is when a person finds themselves 20% or more above their normal body weight, which is unfortunately a stage for numerous citizens in the country. The number of problems that are caused by obesity is frightening, with high blood pressure, diabetes, strokes, and even a larger risk of cancer all being possibilities. High blood pressure is seemingly the better common problem, yet this may cause lots of various other problems, as the heart is being forced to work harder.
Those who are serious about leading a healthy lifestyle know the noteworthiness of not smoking. Anyone who smokes and quits automatically lowers their chances of developing one of the major diseases associated with cigarettes. Those who do smoke display a higher chance of developing lung cancer and emphysema.
Another danger associated with smoking is poor lung maximum volume. They might get tired and breathless just taking a walk around the block, which makes it difficult to exercise. They may also develop cancer of the mouth and even lose their ability to taste foods after smoking for a long time.
Exercise is extremely important in nowadays?s world. With the rise of video games, computer games, desk jobs, and fast food, the body demands to exercise to stay healthy. Exercise may make you feel sound. Many members of public feel a ?rush? when they exercise hard; this is in fact a rush of endorphins. Endorphins make the body and mind feel prestigious. Exercise is important to keep your muscles flexible and to keep them from becoming atrophied, which means that a componental of the body starts to waste away. The more exercise a person gets, the more physically fit they are, and the more they are able to do. Exercise is also important when you need to lose weight, as diet alone might not always do it.
There are many positive side effects when you strive to eat healthier and exercise more. Your weight will likely drop if you are overweight, or stay the same if you are already at the weight you should be at. Healthy eating and exercise make the body work hard in a commendable way, fighting off bacteria and viruses much better than those who eat poorly and rarely exercise. These agreeable habits could affect the condition of one?s skin, nails, and hair, as healthy eating increases the needed vitamins a individual ingests.
Leading a healthy lifestyle helps individuals live longer and happier lives. They feel preferable about their bodies, which helps improve their self-esteem. It also gives them more time to do the things they fancy, without worrying about how their bodies will feel later.
Those who lead healthy lifestyles also show the added benefit of living longer because they reduce their chances of catching certain diseases. Cancer, heart problems, diabetes, and high blood pressure are all conditions that may occur in those who lead less than healthy lives. Making a rare changes though can help eliminate those worries.

You are still overweight even though you have been eating low carbohydrate food, low fat diets, starving yourself, following Pre-package Programs and Hollywood Diets. All these are not going to make you lose weight. For the simplest reasons, you are probably eating the wrong foods, the wrong type of calories per meal and also eating meals in the wrong patterns each day.

Food is the major cause for you to gain weight or lose weight. It can make you thin and it can make you fat. Simply by eating right, you will lose weight in 14 days, but not eating the right food at the right time can easily make you fat. For most people they are afraid of eating simply because they think eating makes them fat. So, they start to starve themselves. They simply stop eating and their body start to develop problems such as gastric. The stomach will also start to eat itself and the organs will shutdown. Once you start eating again you will gain weight more than before.

Your eating pattern also contributes largely to your weight loss. Because your body is like an “engine” and it only needs certain foods at certain intervals throughout the day, you have to adhere to your body needs to lose weight. Not eating certain foods at certain intervals each day will not burn your calories, instead you will be ending up storing more calories as fat tissues.

So, in order for you to lose weight, you need to eat the right food at certain intervals throughout the day. It’s not that hard to lose weight if you are eating your way to lose your weight. By doing this you could lose weight real fast and lose up to 9lbs in 10 days.

Even if you do cardiovascular activities such as jogging every day, you will not lose your weight in the shortest period such as 10 days. However, jogging is good for your health and in the long run it will eventually make you lose weight.

For the vast majority of the people who are trying to lose weight, it is not an easy taskThere are many kind of weight loss pills out there promising to make you more slender and toned, in the advertisement for the  Pills, they will tell you that you do not have to do nothing but swallow these pills and you will lose weight automatically.We all know that if it sounds too good to be true………..The human body can only reduce its weight when it burns of more calories than what it consumesYou can divide weight loss pills in two categories:1: pills who assures that your body does not absorbs fat (the blocking of fat absorption)2: pills who suppress your appetiteBoth types of pills have the same outcome and that is to make sure your body would have a net caloric deficiency,Which would eventually result in weight loss?The pills that blocks fat absorption in your body ,like for instance the very popular weight loss pill  Xenical which is the  Brand name for Orlistat, works like this: it blocks a pancreatic enzyme in your body called lipase and in that way Inhibits fat absorption.The Appetite-suppressant pills makes you lose weight by decreasing your appetite or increase the feeling of your stomach being fullThis kind of pill makes sure that you feel less hungry by increasing the level of one or more chemicals in your brainThat affects your mood and appetite.But we have to be careful, because these pills are not wonder pills that will automatically shrink you back to the weight most of us had when we were in our teensThese diet pills work only if you also change your lifestyle, meaning healthier dieting more exercisingSo if we realize that fat and extra pounds do not disappear magically, but broken down by our body through regular exerciseAnd a healthy and balance dietBut make sure that you always consult your doctor before taking weight loss pills

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Are you unhappily overweight? Do you despair of getting to the right size and shape for you? Is it because you’ve given away your power?
Do you let others decide on your portion size?
When you eat in a restaurant, buy a ready meal, buy chocolate or an ice cream, do you let the producer decide what is the amount you should eat by finishing whatever the portion size happens to be? Next time you’re in a restaurant take back your power and decide for yourself when you’ve had enough.
Do you let inanimate objects decide whether or not you’re a good person that day?
Do you weigh yourself, and feel bad if you haven’t lost weight, letting the scales determine how you feel about yourself? You know your weight will fluctuate from day to day anyway. What’s important is the overall trend. What’s even more important is what type of person you are, not how much you weigh.
Do you let others decide what your weight should be?
Do you look in the magazines and on the TV, and accept what the media say is an ideal weight? Think about the cost of being that slim. Remember that many of the pictures are digitally enhanced and that the photos are taken by experts who know how to flatter.
Do you let your parents decide what you are now?
Did your parents show you love through food? Were you made to eat up all the food on your plate? Do you still behave in the same way around food, even though you’re a grown up and allowed so many other things to change? Think of all the things that have changed in your life since you were a child, and decide to write your own programme around food.
Do you let your age determine what you weigh?
Do you believe that “all women” put weight on when they have babies, or when they reach the menopause? Do you believe that “all men” get fatter as they get older? Weight gain as you get older is often because you do less. Get more exercise, take up a new sport – there’s lots of other benefits than simply weight-management.
Do you let science decide why you’re overweight?
Do you believe that it’s “genetic” and that there’s nothing you can do about it? If you believe that, then that is what will happen: you’ll come to look like the rest of your family. Remember that genes only set the framework of what you are – the rest is up to you.
Take back your power, and the control over what you weigh.

Is your child overweight? What does your child do when they come home from school? Have a snack and watch TV or play video games? Research and studies show that our children are growing more obese by the day. Many families all over North America are struggling to keep the weight of their children within reasonable limits. As a parent, I know that it’s nearly impossible for me to look into the tear-filled eyes of my son and
refuse food. However, the types of food and activities are the key.
So, what’s the alternative? Stop buying the junk food and colas and no TV or video games after school. Children tend to plop themselves on the sofa and munch away happily when they are in front of the TV or games. However, if the TV is off, their natural buoyancy will lead them to do more activities and other things that will cause their body to move. They in turn will be diverted from eating food.
Recreational after school activities are a must if your child is starting to put on those unnecessary pounds. It is better to begin these activities at an early age and get them use to being active after school rather than sitting around. The more weight the child gains in the earlier years, the harder he or she will have to work to loose it later on, not to mention the name calling and ridiculing that overweight children must deal with. There are TONS of activities that can occur after school instead of sitting in front of the TV. Walking, hiking, raking leaves, cleaning the pool or swimming in it, baseball, football, ,martial arts, skating, walking the dog, cleaning your car, even cleaning their room. Anything can be considered an activity as long as your child is not sitting and eating. These activities can be fun and entertaining! It doesn’t need to fell like work.
If your child does require a snack after school, make sure the fridge and cupboards are filled with healthy, nutritional choices and not the high fat, sugary ones. Pop/colas should be illegal to kids under the age of sixteen. There is no reason whatsoever to provide a child with pop.
Get your kids moving! Exercise in moderation never hurt anyone!

An overweight dog is something many owners should be very aware of especially after the middle age of about 7 years of age (depending on dogs’ size). A dogs weight can seriously put your dogs health at risk and cut their life short as well as causing a unnecessary painful ending.

Dogs tend to be able to eat as much as we choose to feed them at times and feeding your dog till he/she is full is a bad idea at the best of times. A set amount should be given to your dog each day and some notification next to your dogs bowl might help the confusion of who’s fed the dog and who hasn’t.

As your dog becomes older, you will need to check their weight more often as their metabolism will slow down and overeating will become out of control and a problem for your dog. Obviously dogs come in different sizes and shapes so there is not set amount of food that has to be given to your particular breed of dog and a small amount of research or a trip to the vets will be needed to see how much your dog should eat.

Determine the weight of your dog is correct by checking that your dogs’ ribs can be easily felt with little pressure, and are not visibly noticeable. Your dogs’ hips should be easily felt and not are surrounded by too much flesh and fat, and from looking down on your dog the body curves inwards after the rib cage slightly.

If these are all in place then your dog appears to be a healthy weight and this should be maintained throughout their life. Always ensure your dog has plenty of exercise and play time to maintain a healthy dog. If your dog becomes too thin then a vet should be contacted for advice and support as well as if your dog is very overweight.