From driving up your blood pressure and cholesterol, to increasing your risk
of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and more, there's no question that being
overweight is more than just a cosmetic problem - it's a serious threat to
your health.
At the same time, if you're like most folks, even the thought of
embarking on a 20-, 40-, or even 100-pound weight-loss plan can seem like a
mountain that's impossible to climb.
If this is the way you're feeling right now, take heart. Today, the most
progressive weight-loss experts agree you don't have to climb the whole
mountain, or even go halfway up, to improve your health. Indeed, taking even
a few small steps toward your weight-loss goals can go a long way in
reducing your health risks, even if you never reach the ideal number on your
bathroom scale.
Even Small Steps Have Big Benefits
At the same time, Sondike tells WebMD that losing weight in an unhealthy
manner, for example, by starving yourself or using diet aids like ephedra,
can work against your overall health, sometimes leaving you in worse shape
than before you attempted the weight loss.
"Depending on what you take or what you do, you could end up with higher
blood pressure and a worse cardiovascular profile than when you weighed
more," says Sondike. Along these same lines, University of Utah nutrition
expert Shawn Talbott, PhD, cautions that attempting too stringent a
weight-loss plan can also backfire, and take its toll on your health. "Both
extreme calorie restriction and placing yourself under a great deal of
mental stress about losing weight has been shown to increase cortisol
levels, the hormone that is associated with high stress," says Talbott, the
author of The Cortisol Connection.
When this happens, he says, it causes your appetite to soar, not only
encouraging you to eat more, but also increasing the likelihood that
whatever weight you do gain will be stored as abdominal fat. "This can then
increase your risk of heart disease and other significant health problems,"
says Talbott.
In the end, he says, it's the act of living more healthfully, and not
just dieting, that matters most, even if you never reach your weight goals.
Anhalt agrees. "A little weight loss achieved in a healthy way is far more
beneficial than a large weight loss that happens in an unhealthy way." If
you lose even one pound through healthy living, he says, "You do an
incredible service to your body and your health." Better to Be 'Fat and Fit'
------------------------------------------------------
If you simply take some healthful steps in the direction of your
weight-loss goals, you are likely to reap some healthy rewards, even if you
never drop a single pound. As remarkable as that sounds, in studies
published in March 2003 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, CDC researchers
found that those folks who simply tried to lose weight lived longer.
The finding does not surprise dietitian Samantha Heller, MS, RD, who
believes effort does count. "Very often, simply making the effort to lose
weight, such as adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet, reducing
your intake of sweets, junk foods, and saturated fats (found in foods like
meat, cheese, and butter), and becoming more physically active can improve
your overall health and reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes,
too," says Heller, a nutritionist at New York University Medical Center.
So, Heller tells WebMD, even if you never actually lose any weight, doing
these things alone is bound to help you feel better and ultimately, impact
your health in a positive way.
And many doctors now believe that even if you are unable to lose any
weight at all, keeping yourself from gaining pounds as the years go by will
also help you gain some important health benefits. "If you can focus your
efforts on achieving a more healthy lifestyle, if you increase your level of
physical activity just a little bit, and maybe incorporate some healthful
changes into your daily diet you will not only be successful at preventing
weight gain, in the process you will be doing something positive for your
health," says Sondike. "In the end," says Anhalt," it's not about the
pounds, it's all about the lifestyle changes, and about understanding that,
in the long run, fat and fit is ultimately better than thin and unfit." If
you make the changes that lead to a healthier lifestyle, experts say you
will definitely be healthier, and ironically, you'll probably weigh a lot
less as well.
Source: WebMD
About The Author
----------------
Michael Lewis has been collecting articles and information on Weight Loss
and HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and related health benefits. He has created
and edits numerous web sites about this subject. Michael is a staff writer
for
www.ageforce.com
and several other websites. If you would like to contact Michael you can
e-mail him at Michael@AgeForce.com or if you would like to know more about
Weight Loss, HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and related health topics please
visit us at
http://www.ageforce.com.
