Obesity continues to rise in America … up to two thirds of Americans are now estimated as being either overweight or obese. And don’t forget the children, obesity continues to rise in this age group too. Insurance companies have known for nearly a century that very heavy people or very light people are likely to die young and are therefore unprofitable to insure without charging heavy premiums.

It has been reported that obesity costs approximately $150 billion a year in medical expenditures and that obesity-related disorders account for about 12 per cent of all health issues.

Being overweight or obese can affect nearly every part of your body it can increase your chances of having a heart attack, developing diabetes and having high blood pressure. 

Obesity can also cause:

• Breathlessness
• Back pain
• Sweating
• Infertility
• Sleep difficulties
• Strokes
• Certain cancers — colon, prostate, ovarian and postmenopausal breast cancer
• Aching joints
• Difficulties with walking
• Depression
• Low self-esteem
• Raised ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol levels 

So why worry about obesity?

The main reason is that it can severely hamper you from living life to the full. Obesity takes off an average of 9 years from the lifespan.

You can reduce your health risks though. It is not all bad news! We now know that losing just 5 to 10 per cent of your body weight can provide many health benefits such as:

• Lowering blood pressure
• Improving blood sugar control for people with diabetes
• Reducing the risk of angina
• Improving the blood cholesterol levels

So losing weight (and keeping it off) can really help you live the life you want; a longer and better quality life. A weight loss of 11 to 22lb can improve back and joint pain, reduce breathlessness and improve sleeping problems. 

Can you identify with this lady?

‘I can’t be the person that I want to be, I’d love to run around and play with my children but my weight stops me doing this’.

People who have lost weight say:

• ‘I feel so much fitter, and my legs don’t rub together when I walk anymore.’
• ‘I haven’t lost much weight, only 11lb, but I already feel less out of breath when I run.’
• ‘I feel so much more confident than I used to, I can now wear different clothes, I am not hiding under a baggy t-shirt all the time.’

One of the main differences now is that we do so much less activity than we used to. The number of calories that we use is far less than in the 1950s.