Putting on Weight?

It’s now too much! I just don’t like it. I’m sick of all the weight management programs and weight loss supplements they made me take. Yet none of them worked. Not at least in the long run.

Statistics from the World Health Organization reveal that at least 33% of all adults is overweight and almost 10% are obese. Additionally, about 40 million children under the age of 5 are overweight! Now those are many people!

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a term used to gauge whether a person has the appropriate weight and is calculated using height and weight. Ideally, a healthy person’s BMI is supposed to be within the range of 18 to 24.9. With a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 a person is considered overweight and anything above 29.9, one is considered obese. Interestingly, a BMI below 18.5 makes one underweight and has some health effects too! (Read More on Underweight!)

So why is it important that we control our own weight and go for regular check ups from time to time? Recent studies from Harvard Medical School reveal some interesting findings. According to the study, your weight has a huge impact on your mental and physical health. Obesity increased the risk of developing diabetes 20 times while significantly increasing the risk of stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure and gall stones. But that sounds common, doesn’t it?

In the same study, it was found that not only were obese people likely to develop depression, but also depression led to more people becoming obese. This was likely true due to the fact that depressed people had poor eating habits and were less likely to exercise. At the same time, being overweight increased the risk of developing heart disease by 32% while obesity increased it by whooping 81%. As a matter of fact, overweight and obesity was linked to 14% of cancer deaths in men and 20% in women. This was mainly made of prostrate and stomach cancer in men and breast, cervix and uterus cancer in women. Obesity is still believed to be a second leading cause of cancer after cigarette smoking.

The rising cases of obesity and overweight people in Kenya largely stems from the increase in consumption of unhealthy foods in excessive quantities. The shift to the use of motor vehicles and motorbikes has meant that people do little exercise as they move about. Fast food restaurants have flooded the cities and many unhealthy foods are available on a “free-delivery” basis in the name of being “cholesterol-free!” Sitting for very long hours in an office for adults as well as long hours of watching television might also be risk factors for being overweight.So what can we do about it? As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure, it is only wise to prevent being overweight before it even happens. It is also true that obesity happens one pound at a time, but so does prevention. We might not eliminate the occurrence of heart disease by just having a healthy BMI but we might reduce it a great deal! I recently learnt of a Weight Loss program known as the Clean 9 (C9). Certainly, this program not only promises a better chance of losing excessive weight in a more healthy way but also how to do so sustainably. It also takes you through steps to ensure that you lose just enough weight. Would you be interested in knowing more about it? Leave us a comment below or send us an email here