Weight Loss & Obesity Reduce Life Expectancy!

We hear it all the time…lose weight for your health. Few people
however, realize the extent to which this is critical to their
physical well-being and ultimately their life expectancy.

In January 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Association
featured a study finding that obesity appears to lessen life
expectancy, especially among young adults. The study showed an
obese 20-year-old white male, (5’10″)178cm and weighing (288
pounds) 130kg was estimated to lose 13 years of his life as a
result of obesity.

It is now well research that a Western diet that leads to
obesity may actually act to stimulate the growth of cancer
cells. It is never too late to improve your health through
healthful eating and adopting a more health-giving lifestyle.
Here are simple steps to follow which can make an immediate
improvement to your health and vitality.

1. Check to see if you are overweight or obese. To find
out your BMI you need to divide your weight (measured in kilos)
by your height (measured in metres) squared. If the result is
greater than 25, your health may be improved by losing weight.

2. Match your diet to your body’s requirements. If you
eat and drink more calories than your body requires you will put
on weight. Learn to control calories and portion sizes, make
recipes leaner, and eat infrequently from fast food restaurants.
Also learn how to snack with healthful choices.

3. Colour your diet with a large variety of colorful,
cancer-fighting fruit and vegetables. There are seven
different color ranges of both fruit and vegetables and by
choosing between 5 to 9 daily serves from a wide range of fruit
and vegetables, we are extending our consumption of cancer (and
other disease) fighting nutrients.

4. Eat lean protein with every meal. Protein provides a
powerful signal to the brain providing a longer sense of
fullness. The right source of protein is essential to
controlling your hunger with fewer calories and necessary to
maintain your lean muscle mass. Choices of protein should be
flavored soy shakes with fruit; the white meat of chicken and
turkey, seafood such as shrimps, prawns scallops and lobster and
ocean fish or vegetarians may prefer soy based meat substitutes.

5. Rev up your metabolism with activity. If you want to
enjoy a lifetime of well being, exercise is a key ingredient.
Thirty minutes activity each day that takes as much effort as a
brisk walk is recommended for adults. Children should be active
for an hour each day.

6. Get support to ensure you develop a healthful eating plan
and reach your goal weight. A study, “Effects of Internet
Behavioral Counseling on Weight Loss in Adults at Risk of Type 2
Diabetes” shows that participants who had the support of weight
loss coaching lost more weight than those who didn’t. The study
concluded that the support of a weight loss coach can
significantly improve weight loss results.

Being overweight or obese has been identified next to smoking,
as the most preventable major risk to developing cancer. Even
small weight losses have been shown to have beneficial health
effects. So it’s never to late to start and you can never be too
young or too old to be concerned about your health and do
something about achieving a more healthy weight.

(c) Copyright by Kim Beardsmore

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