Healthy Living - Don't Just Lose Weight: Improve Your Health

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Don't Just Lose Weight: Improve Your Health

Spend a day carrying around an extra 10 pound bag of flour and you'll get an appreciation of the extra burden that weight puts on your body and heart. Every body system, your lungs, heart, muscles and bones, must work harder.

One in three American adults is obese and childhood and adolescent obesity is also rising. According to the Academy of Medicine, obesity is defined as an excess of body fat. Men with more than 25 percent body fat and women with more than 30 percent body fat are considered to be obese.

Many health problems are linked to obesity. If you can pinch more than an inch of body fat, or your weight is above recommendations, you can significantly reduce your risk of the following health problems by losing weight. Reducing your excess body weight by 5 to 10 percent can lower your risk of many chronic diseases.

10 Benefits of Weight Loss:

Lower blood pressure, reduced risk of stroke

Decreased levels of total cholesterol, and LDL (bad cholesterol), reduced risk of heart attack

Increased HDL (good cholesterol) levels

Decreased triglycerides

Lower blood sugar levels, reduced risk of diabetes

Improved circulation

Decrease in sleep disorders, less sleep apnea and therefore more energy

Improved uric acid levels (high in gout)

Improvement in arthritis and joint pain

Improved self-esteem and lessening of depression and social isolation

With all these wonderful benefits--in addition to looking and feeling better--why wait?