Weight Gain in Adulthood — Slowing it Down

The biggest problem we face in America today is not terrorism -
it is obesity. This is according to Dr. Julie Gerberding, head
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in America.
And it seems much of this problem is happening in a slow and
creeping way, through gradual young and middle-aged adult weight
gain, over very long periods of time.

On the average, a typical American adult gains at least two
pounds per year over his or her lifetime. That probably means
that approximately 100 extra calories are being consumed each
day, according to Dr. James Hill of the University of Colorado’s
nutrition center. If you simply burn off those 100 extra
calories, or don’t consume them to begin with, you will then not
gain that yearly extra weight.

Dr. Gerberding says that fixing the problem will involve
changing most Americans’ daily social norms. This will have to
start in our early childhood, she says. People will have to
begin performing more physical activity and eating less every
day. And Dr. Hill has examined government figures showing that
about 40 million adults are currently obese. He has also noted
that Americans are steadily gaining more weight than usual in
recent years. But what can be done about this socially and
personally significant health problem?

“The future is not hopeful unless we act now,” Dr. Hill says. He
estimates that if current trends continue, the obesity rate for
American adults in 2008 will be 39%, which compares unfavorably
with 31% in the year 2000. Middle age shows a great increase in
the amount of weight gained. There is a doubling of body fat in
this time period in both men and women living in the developed
countries. Such weight gain is strongly associated with
increased morbidity and mortality. But there is ample evidence
to conclude that moderate physical activity combined with a
steady and healthy diet slows down or stops middle-aged adult
weight gain.

Young adults are also at a high risk for weight gain. In
America, for adults ages 25-74, the major weight gain was shown
to be highest between ages 25-34. This was found by recent US
government studies. And in the Coronary Artery Risk Development
in Young Adults Study, even though trends were constant across
ten years of follow-up studies, aging related weight gain was
largest in the early to mid-20s than it was for older age groups.

It may not be wisest to wait until middle age, even though that
may be when obesity actually becomes a more significant health
threat, to lose weight. Irreversible health damage from weight
being above optimal levels may occur prior to the beginning of a
health related diet and exercise program. But modest weight loss
can reduce cardiovascular risk factors, and in high-risk
individuals, it also prevent the development of diabetes and
hypertension.

The American College of Preventative Medicine endorses the
guidelines of the National Institutes of Health when it comes to
advising obese and overweight patients on how to go about both
losing excess weight and keeping it off. They encourage moderate
physical activity for 30 to 45 minutes for at least 3 to 5 days
per week for clinically obese or overweight persons, whenever
such a program is not contraindicated by any current health
problems. They also advise counseling regarding an
energy-reduced or low-calorie diet of 800 to 1500 calories per
day for an obese or overweight male or female adult until
optimal weight is attained. Then it is suggested that such
persons remain on a healthy, normal diet that is not higher in
calories than the amount they burn each day.

It is felt by many experts that simply avoiding excess weight
gain during the early adult years may be important regarding
preventing adverse health reactions and establishing an early
foundation for the maintenance of lifelong healthy habits in
adulthood. It is also felt that interventions such as simple
changes in diet and the maintenance of a regular exercise
program will help parents establish lifelong role models for
their children. This would greatly help to prevent America’s
steady increase in obesity over the past decade, and its
accompanying morbidity and mortality over the next several
generations of Americans.

Information in this article was obtained from the four sources
listed below:

The “Weight Control and Obesity” page at

http://www.annecollins.com/weight_health/weight-control-obesity.h

tm ;

The Nutrition.org page at
http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/132/12/3824S ;

The “Weight management counseling of overweight adults” page at

http://www.guideline.gov/summary/summary.aspx?ss=15&doc_id=3154&n

br=2380 ; The “NHLBI Working Group Report Preventing Weight Gain
in Young Adults” page at

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/wgt-gain.htm

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