For whom is weight loss necessary?

For many years, the American population has been deeply worried about weight loss. Post globalization; this anxiety has spread to many developing countries as well, where the upwardly mobile, urban population is quite worried about weight loss.

Some of the main reasons for which people need to be within a defined, broad weight range have been doing the rounds for years. We have heard medical researchers telling us that excess weight is very dangerous for the body. It is said that excessive weight is particularly dangerous for diabetics. It is also said to be a major cause for a variety of cardiovascular heart diseases and for arterial clogging, which is attributed to buildup of fat in the arteries.

Before coming to any outright conclusions about all these medical facts; let us first understand who needs to lose weight, and why.

It is a cultural thing, for sure

Weight is an important physically noticeable aspect of a person's appearance. There is a direct link between worries about fat being a major reason for heart disease and cultures in which importance is attached to physical appearance. It is everyone's wish in the west to look good and feel good physically. We need to first discern between what society classifies as being acceptable physically and what it frowns upon.

Lifestyle is the key

This is not to suggest that medical facts are rubbish; it is just to draw a link between obsession with physical beauty and health. It is undoubtedly true that fat is a killer in the west, but it is not considered as great a threat as in many developing countries. In many countries, people are still physically very active in the course of their daily occupations. In several Third World countries; agriculture is the main occupation of vast percentages of the populations. Where is the question of weight loss for people who are on the move for most of the day, and whose very occupation makes them naturally active; something people in the industrialized world are struggling to implement, even in a small part, into their lifestyle?

Being healthy is more important

In such countries, even when people are rotund, if not outright flabby; such a physical appearance is not looked down upon. It is the perception, in general, in the cultures of most developing countries that fatter is better! Medical science will completely agree that where people are free of stress, they are healthier. So, if fatter people are healthy, how does it matter whether they need to keep an ideal weight or ratio?

One size never fits all
In essence, we need to understand that weight and fat ratios are never absolute. A major worry for people in the west is the hip ratio. People in the medical profession fix a direct link between a bulging waist and heart disease. If this were true universally, then at a minimum; two thirds of Indian men, numbering over the entire population of the US, should have had heart disease!

Before making any assessment of weight loss, we need to first understand who needs to lose weight and why. What does it cost, in health terms more than financial, to lose weight? If drastic weight loss leads to complications; is it worth the trouble? One needs to look at this issue on a person-to-person basis, rather than view it as an epidemic.

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