For a healthier lifestyle, obesity is the most challenging hurdle. For whatever reason, you gain weight; it does not deprive you of severe health conditions.
Over the past twenty years, due to consuming junk food, obesity is becoming common nowadays. In unites states, 36.5% of adults are obese.
It means slow progress toward death is in the form of weight gain.
In 2019 in Egypt, 218 deaths and 69 in the united states out of 100,00 people died due to their abnormal body weight.
How Will You Define Obesity?
Obesity is the accumulation or unequal distribution of unhealthy fat in your body.
Obesity leads to differential body changes like your metabolic process; the hormonal balance will disturb, and inflammation may occur in different body parts.
How Will You Determine Whether You Are Overweight Or Underweight?
There are precisely two methods:
- Body Mass Index
Body mass index is the relation between body weight and height of the individual.
- Calculation
Divide your weight in kg by the square of your height in inches. The answer is your body mass index.
Multiply your weight in pounds by 703, divide it by height in inches, and then divide it again by your height in inches.
A simple solution to check your body mass index is to use an online calculator.
- Standards Of Body Mass Index
A standard is set that you are overweight if you have a body mass index of 30 or higher. The alarming news for the Asian community, the set standard of BMI for them is 23 or higher.
- Drawback
Body mass index cannot differentiate between body fat, muscle, or bone mass, so sometimes it calls bodybuilders obese patients, but they are not.
Age, ethnicity, muscle mass, and bone can influence the relationship between body mass and fat.
2. Waist Measurement Method
Due to the drawbacks of the body mass index, some doctors also use the waist measurement to determine obesity in the individual.
- For men, the minimum waist limit Is 40 inches ( 102) centimeters; greater than or equal to this will indicate overweight.
- It is 35 inches ( 89) centimeters for a woman, a set measure to check obesity.
Eight Common Health Hazards Due To Obesity
Now let’s prove with facts why obesity is called as mother of all diseases.
1. Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes patients suffer from high blood glucose levels and increased insulin resistance.
The risk of type 2 diabetes is more in obese patients because a higher level of fats in the body promotes its conversion into glucose. In 2020, 12.8% of obese men and 17.3% of obese women also had diabetes in Italy.
Diabetes raises many problems like loss of vision, high blood pressure, muscle weakness, cardiovascular problems, stroke, etc.
It means through obesity, we are inviting these diseases to prevail over us.
If you want to cure diabetes by changing your lifestyle, read this article: How Modifications In Lifestyle Help To Cure Diabetes
2. Heart Disease
Let’s sketch how our weight affects our bodies.
Obesity causes an increased amount of fat in our bodies. That fat, after some time, start settling down in our arteries. It results in clogging that interrupts our arteries to supply oxygen or nutrients through the blood to various body parts or the heart.
Ultimately, in the end, narrowing and blocking of arteries lead to arteriosclerosis which causes a heart attack.
Along with raising blood sugar levels, high levels of low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) also cause various cardiovascular problems.
3. Stroke
Both heart disease and stroke share the same risk factor.
The significant difference is the affected organ. In heart disease, the oxygen supply to the heart is cut down; in stroke, the brain is affected.
Damage to brain cells and nerves leads to numerous problems:
- Speech impairment
- Language impairment
- Weakened muscles
- Loss of reasoning and analytical skills
- Visual problems
- Paralysis
In 2010 a report by 25 students on 2.3 million participants found that obesity increases the incidence of stroke by up to 69%
4. Sleep Apnea
It is a condition in which shortness of breath occurs while sleeping.
Is it not horrible?
An experience similar to death will physically impact you and cause a mental disturbance.
Now, how it occurs?
Well, all of our stories relate to the higher fat content in the body. An unequal accumulation of fat around the neck causes sleep apnea. As it shrinks, airways ultimately cause loss of breath.
Moreover, a patient will also have insomnia because of fear of sleep; also, lack of sleep will affect the routine daily activity of the patient.
Do you start comprehending how obesity links with every disease in chain form?
5. Liver Disease
Obesity causes excess fat to build up in the liver. It damages life through cirrhosis ( growth of scar tissue.
This disease is known as fatty liver disease or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. It is a slow poison.
As the fatty liver disease has no signs and symptoms, its result is liver failure.
The only way to get back on track is to lose weight, enhance physical activity and stop drinking alcohol.
6. Cancer
The scientific study does not have clear evidence, like other cardiovascular diseases or stroke, whether cancer occurs due to obesity or not.
But medical experts believe that being overweight will connect to various cancers in our body.
A study conducted on unites states population in 2012 proves that 28,000 new cases of cancer in men and 72,000 cases in women are associated with obesity.
The list of cancer that occur due to being overweight includes:
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Gallbladder cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Kidney cancer
- prostate cancer
- Uterus cancer
- Cervix cancer
- Endometrium cancer
7. Other Complications
- Osteoarthritis
Being overweight means putting more weight on joints. It results in the inflammation of the joints and causes osteoarthritis, especially in women.
The more stress you put on your joints, the worse your condition will be.
- Severe Covid 19 Symptoms
In covid 19 period, obese people suffered from severe symptoms of this virus compared to healthy individuals.
They require breathing support during their treatment in the intensive care unit.
- Gall Bladder Disease
Obesity changes the composition of bile ( a hormone responsible for the digestion of fats), that is, higher cholesterol levels.
Hence, bile starts thickening in the gall bladder( an organ to store bile), leading to gallstones.
It causes the gallbladder to increase in size and become less functional.
- Kidney Disease
Our kidneys are damaged by diabetes and high blood pressure, so indirectly, obesity also affects the normal functioning of our kidneys. It means the kidney fails to filter the blood qualitatively and quantitatively in obese persons.
- Shortening Of Life Span
Indirectly, obesity means we are waiting for death.
The cause of each problem is the same: fat in the body. So, a fatty human being is not prone to only one disease but all the disorders simultaneously.
How Does Obesity Affect The Quality Of Life?
Obesity not only affects your physical health but also makes you mentally weak.
In our society, obesity is taboo; without knowing the reason, we start discrimination and character assassination.
We forget the affected person’s problem and focus on body shaming and playing our role in shattering their confidence.
Many organizations and National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance work together to eliminate this body size discrimination.
Thus, obesity leads to many other problems;
- Depression
A person will start loving loneliness and stop socializing with others because he knows that others only make fun of his body size.
- Start Hating Oneself
An obese will start hating himself due to his oversize body. In our society, people are judged based on their looks, not on their personality and character.
- Lower work achievement
A person will start losing interest in everything; his only concern will revolve around losing weight or avoiding society. As a result, his practical life gets worse.
- Increase In Dependency On Others
An obese person cannot perform the task swiftly compared to other individuals. Thus, it increases his dependency on others and fills the person with shame and guilt.
CONCLUSION
You are perfect in every way. Keep reminding yourself in every situation.
But on medical grounds, it is suitable to lose weight. Not for others, but do it for yourself, a step toward a healthier lifestyle.
A sudden result is not possible on the weight loss journey, keep it consistent, and soon you will achieve your aim.
Obesity is an addiction, meaning it is easy to lose weight but hard to lose. Only efforts with sincerity lead to weight loss.
If you want to lose weight, read these articles, Keto Diet: A Route Towards A Healthy Life or Benefits Of Ketogenic Diet: Why Is It Good For You?
