Shedding Pounds To Shed Disease

By Christopher Sendi, MD

NOVA Addiction Specialists, LLC

. http://www.novaddiction.com/

More Weight Control, Nutrition & Exercise Articles

Shedding Pounds To Shed Disease

Did you know that overweight increases your risk of cancer? Gynecological cancers such as ovarian and endometrial cancer, as well as breast cancer, occur significantly more often when you are overweight. In fact, most cancers occur with higher frequency in people with excessive weight.

However, there are multiple other medical problems associated with being overweight which include stroke, heart attacks, fatty liver, cirrhosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic pain, and sleep apnea just to name a few. Elevated levels of insulin are a primary reason for these subsequent medical problems, and these elevated levels are mostly due to excessive carbohydrates.

All it takes is a 5-10% loss of your excess body weight to remove significant risk from all of these disorders. Weight loss in this range has a significant impact in lessening high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes risk, and multiple other problems.

This points to the importance of having a realistic goal for your weight loss journey. It is easier and reasonable to aim for a realistic, achievable goal so as to make yourself happier and healthier. At the same time, your medical problems can become significantly less burdensome and actually require less medication.

Successful weight loss will require motivation and active participation utilizing multiple interventions. Decreasing carbohydrate intake and calories are the first steps. Next, add exercise, both aerobic and strength training, to help prevent your muscle mass from being consumed as you diet. Also important is evaluating and changing to healthy eating habits that allow for successful weight loss.

Eating out, mindless eating, snacking, and shopping on an empty stomach are a few behaviors that need to be changed. Your weight-loss physician or dietician can review behavioral strategies and food choices to optimize your success.

An important weight-loss tool is intermittent fasting, or eating nothing for a 12-14 hour period of time scheduled throughout the week. This resets your insulin sensitivity and healthfulness. For example, it may be effective to structure an eating schedule only between 2 PM and 10 PM several times a weeks, allowing a 16 hour periodic fast.

One thing to definitely cut out is desserts and late-night snacks, both of which will undermine your dieting success. There are numerous interventions and strategies that can be utilized in your struggle to lose weight which make it important that your physician be knowledgeable about weight loss.

Now is the time to get your weight and health under control. What are you waiting for?