There are more overweight children in our society than was there decades ago. For a long time now, changing lifestyles have largely been blamed. Obesity is also a very common problem in developed countries compared to underdeveloped ones. It is also a leading cause of preventable deaths in the world. More people in urban settings prefer to eat their meals in restaurants rather than cook because they have less time on their hands. Another problem is that children tend to eat a lot of snacks which are high in cholesterol. In the end, the body stores unnecessary fats causing health problems. We fail to ask ourselves this question-what we have really been feeding on? To answer that, we need to define the disease for better understanding.
Obesity or overweight is a condition in which the body has excessive fats stored in the body which may cause diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and high blood pressure. Overweight is measured using the body mass index (BMI).
A person’s BMI should not go beyond 30, otherwise will be considered to be obese. BMI measure is arrived at by dividing weight by the square of his height. A person whose weight is above 20% his normal weight is usually considered to be suffering from obesity.
In most cases, obesity is largely caused by high calories in the foods we eat, doing no exercises, medication or psychiatric illnesses; although it could also be genetic, but this does not mean that it can not be treated. Obese people do not just gain weight from eating a lot of food. They may consume less and still gain weight. This happens because their metabolism rate is slow
Obese people have a hard time breathing making the heart work two times more than normal in pumping blood to other parts of the body. As a result, the muscles around the heart increase twice their normal size resulting in heart diseases and high blood pressure. High cholesterol in the body has been found to accelerate diabetes.
Treatment and Management
Obese people get treatment though dieting and exercising. There are certain drugs that can also be used as a supplement to reduce appetite and to inhibit fats. A surgery known as gastric bypass has been used effectively in the past, although it is expansive and may have adverse reactions in some people. There are certain surgeries that have been used. Very low calorie diets of 200-800 kcal/day in food maintaining proteins will be helpful in cutting down the weight. For this to be effective way of treatment, it should be monitored by a doctor.
Physical exercises are very important. A 30 minute run or 1km walk a day will help your weight balanced. Muscles consume energy from stored fat and most of these muscles are found around the legs and hands. Such exercise will nonetheless reduce the fat retained around these parts. Instead of driving to work, why not start walking and using the stairs instead of elevator?
