Not many are aware of the fact but there’s a big difference between being overweight and obese. Typically a lifestyle disease, obesity can occur at any age and sometimes is even hereditary.
It’s been reported that 7% of adult population in the world is obese, which accounts of 250 million people. Ashwini Sukumar, nutritionist and dietician for Gold’s Gym, Bangalore, says, “Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. Body mass index (BMI), a measurement which compares weight and height, defines people as overweight (pre-obese) if their BMI is between 25kg/m2 and 30kg/m2, and obese when it is greater than 30kg/m2.(WHO, 2000).”
Don’t ignore it
Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. It is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical activity and genetic susceptibility, although a few cases are caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness. Evidence to support the view that some obese people eat little, yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism is limited; on average obese people have a greater energy expenditure than their thin counterparts due to the energy required to maintain an increased body mass.
Eat well
“Dieting and physical exercise are the mainstays of treatment for obesity. The combination of a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity will lead to better weight loss than either one done separately. Small changes in diet and physical activity are the keys to long-term, successful weight loss for most obese people,” says Ashwini
Most health organisations recommend a specific distribution of calories. Burning only an extra 100 calories a day by walking briskly for about 20 minutes will lead to a weight loss of about 10 pounds a year, while burning an extra 300 calories by walking briskly for about 60 minutes a day will lead to a weight loss of about 30 pounds. Physical activity contributes to weight loss, decreases abdominal fat, increases cardiorespiratory fitness, and helps with maintenance of lost weight.
Work it out
Any aerobic exercise, such as swimming, bicycling, jogging, skiing or dancing, leads to these benefits, but for most obese people brisk walking seems to be the easiest activity to do. Other forms of exercise, such as resistance training or lifting weights, can also be helpful in a weight loss programme. Finding ways to be more active every day, such as walking up a flight of stairs rather than taking the elevator, or walking somewhere rather than driving, can help a person burn calories without much effort, offers Ashwini.
Model and actor Rahul Dev says, “The rise in children’s obesity over the past few decades can’t be explained by an extra 100-calorie soda each day, or fewer physical education classes. Skipping a cookie or walking to school would barely make a dent in a calorie imbalance that goes “far beyond the ability of most individuals to address on a personal level. This doesn’t mean small improvements are futile. But people need to take a realistic view of what they can accomplish.”
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