Sixty-five per cent of the people on our planet live in countries where they will more likely die of being overweight and obese than being underweight, according to the World Health Organization.
If it jiggles it’s fatARNOLD SCHWARTZENEGGER
There are more than 1.4 billion adults aged 20 and over who are overweight in our modern world, with sugar-laced lattes available on every corner and a stressed, rushed society gulping down fast food as they run from one task to the next. Of those, more than 500 million men and women are classified as “obese.” Obese. Even the word itself seems deep-fried in grease. It’s nasty.
Obese means your Body Mass Index (BMI) is 30 or more. Right now, you know just by looking at yourself in the mirror if you are a few pounds past prime. You know by the horrified gasp you emit when you stand on the scales and the needle zooms out of your comfort zone. Being fat does more than undermine your self-confidence. It can kill you.
Think about your body like a new car. It has a sturdy engine, a tank-full of gas, and heavy-duty tyres to take you through all kinds of weather.Think about that car spending the next 20 years dragging a heavy caravan behind it.
For the first few years, you are amazed at how well the little car performs, pulling its extra burden without complaint. Then one day you discover it can’t make it up hills anymore without giving out. Then it starts to break, a little problem here, and a little problem there until one day it just collapses and you can’t put all the pieces back together again.
Your body is like that when it carries too much fat. Your heart can often be one of the first things to give out. It just can’t keep the blood pumping to all your chubby extremities and besides, your arteries are full of plaque. It blocks and you experience a heart attack. You could have a stroke, and you may never recover completely from that.
In fact, cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and strokes are the leading causes of death on our planet based on data gathered by the World Health Organization.
Besides possibly dying from heart conditions and strokes, there are a number of other risks you can face from carrying too much weight:
Diabetes – This disease occurs when your body can’t produce or handle its insulin. Poorly managed, it can result in damage to the body that proves to be fatal. It leads to too much glucose in your blood, which in turn can damage your nerves, blood vessels and organs.
Osteoarthritis – This disorder of the system can leave you hurting so much you can’t even walk from the pain. Ultimately, you may not even be able to get out of your chair or your bed.
Cancer – Obesity has been linked in a number of scientific studies to different kinds of cancer, especially colon cancer, breast cancer and endometrial cancer. All are also potentially fatal.
If you want your body to operate well and effectively into your old age, this is the number one priority that needs to be addressed.Like your little car pulling too big a load, you need to unhook the caravan behind you and relieve that strain on your systems.
Effective repair:
1. Weigh yourself.
2. Check to see if you are at a good weight, are overweight or are obese. There are lots of good charts on the Internet to enlighten you. One of our favorites is the chart on the Rush University Medical Center.
3. If you weigh more than you want, start now to consider an eating plan that has you bringing in fewer calories than you use. As a general guideline, the average man needs 2,500 calories a day and the average woman needs 2,000.
