Obesity : Definitions and Complications

It is common knowledge that there is an obesity epidemic in the United States. It is also common knowledge that multiple health problems, including diabetes, are direct results of obesity. Annual expenses in this country directly resulting from the rampant occurrence of obesity, including health care costs, decreased productivity, weight loss products, and disabilities related to obesity are estimated at 100 billion dollars per year.

Everyone knows the above information. What is less common knowledge is exactly how obesity is defined in medical terms, and how to tell the difference between someone who could merely "stand to lose a few pounds," and someone who is obese.

Simply put, obesity is characterized as having too much body fat. There is a difference between someone having too much fat and having too much overall weight. For example, muscle weighs more than fat, so professional bodybuilders will weigh more than a merely trim healthy individual of the same height. Conversely, members of a population such as the elderly, who have reduced musculature, may underestimate how much body fat they have because they have lost weight overall.

The BMI, or Body Mass Index, does not take into account this variation. However, for most people, it serves as a reasonable estimation to determine if they have an appropriate amount of body fat. Ask your health care provider to help you determine your BMI and see where you fit in. The BMI is calculated by taking one's weight in kilograms, dividing it by the square of one's height in meters. Excess fat in the area of the waist is associated with more morbidity than fat in the area of the hips. The risks for the conditions mentioned below are higher in men with a waist circumference greater than 40 inches, and for women greater than 30 inches.

Here is a brief informal list of BMIs and their relative labels:

• 20 or below: Underweight
• 22: Optimal-associated with the lowest mortality rate.
• 25-30: Overweight
• 30-40: Obese
• 40-50: Severely Obese
• 50-60: Morbidly Obese
• 60 and over: Super Obese.

Some of the problems associated with obesity are as follows:

1.) Cardiovascular problems, such as heart attacks, Atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and heart failure
2.) Pulmonary Disorders, such as Asthma and Sleep Apnea
3.) Gastroenterological Disorders, such as Gallbladder Disease, Fatty Liver, Gastroesophogeal Reflux
4.) Neurological Complications, such as Stroke
5.) Certain malignancies (cancers)
6.) Depression
7.) Degenerative Arthritis
8.) Reproductive issues such as Polycystic Ovary Disease and Stress Incontinence
9.) A higher surgical risk from wound infections, phlebitis, pulmonary embolisms, and pneumonia
10.) Dysmetabolic Syndrome, including Diabetes Type II, Hypertension, high triglycrides, and low HDL (low "good cholesterol")

There is some good news for people with diabetes who also suffer from obesity. As you treat your diabetes by utilizing diet and exercise to achieve your weight loss goals, you may lower your risk of many of the complications from obesity while increasing your control over diabetes. A weight loss of only 10-15 lbs. may make a significant difference. If you think you may have a weight problem, discuss it with your health care provider.

MEDICAL ADVICE DISCLAIMER: The information included on this site is for educational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The reader should always consult his or her health care provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for his or her own situation, or if her or she has any questions regarding a medical condition or treatment plan. Reading the information on this website does not create a physician-patient relationship.

Pressure Points for Weight Loss

Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine believe in acupressure to help in weight loss and appetite control. This ancient tradition is said to restore the balance of the forces in your body. By pressing on some specific points, you restore these forces to balance, helping to control your appetite and reduce your craving for food.

Meridians and Channels

1. • As a traditional Chinese medicine, acupressure works on the theory of meridians and channels that run through the body. Acupressure practitioners believe that health problems come from an imbalance of the forces of meridian and channels, or an obstruction to their usual flow. Based on the flow of meridians and channels, acupressure aims to treat obesity by controlling the appetite and expelling unwanted heat and moisture from the body. No scientific research exists to back up these traditional beliefs, which were developed before the scientific process was conceived.
     
     

   Yin, Yang and Chi

   • Traditional Chinese medicine also relies on yin, yang and chi (spiritual energy). Again, if any of these forces are out of balance or have been obstructed in some way, you might put on excess weight or become ill. Acupressure (using the fingers, hands, acupressure balls or mats) will restore beneficial balance to your yin, yang and chi. As with meridians and channels, no scientific research exists to back up these beliefs.

   Massage Control Points

   • The point just below your ear contains one weight loss pressure point. Putting the right amount of pressure to this point will help control food cravings and reduce overeating. Position your hands by your ear with your fingers touching your jaw. Open your mouth until you feel a small bump between your jaw and ear. Apply constant pressure to this point.

     A stomach pressure point is located 3.5 inches below your kneecap and 1 inch toward the outside of your leg. Move your foot back and forth until you feel the leg muscle moving under your finger. This is the stomach 36 pressure point; apply pressure to this point for 60 seconds. You will boost your blood flow and your chi as well as your digestive system. Next, move your fingers to the other side of your shin bone on the inside of your leg. Slide your fingers toward your knee and try to find a slight hollow there. Apply a steady pressure to this area for one minute. This point affects water retention, and how water flows through the body.

     The spleen 6 is located about 3 inches above your ankle and next to your shin bone. Press on your calf in this area. This will help to control food cravings. Press for one minute using your thumb.

Thinking Thin

Staying trim and watching your weight are as much about how you eat and drink as it is about what you consume. In a nutshell, people who are overweight tend to eat differently from normal weight people and, as a consequence, tend not to heed the signals that tell others that "enough's enough".

Overweight people do, of course, eat too much. That's pretty obvious. If you consume more than you burn off, then the excess has to be channelled somewhere - and that's under your skin and around your organs. You could combat that with hours in the gym - but it takes a lot of rowing, cycling and treadmilling to burn off a second helping of chips, pudding or cake. And gyms cost a lot of money. Did you know that they all rely on people forgetting to cancel their monthly subscriptions once they've joined, gone along a couple of times - and then found it all a bit of a groan?

Easier, cheaper and, ultimately healthier (gyms are a very recent invention!) is to control the intake end of the whole process - and that's where good old "will-power" may just not be enough. Psychologists have observed and monitored the differences between "fat eating" and "thin eating" behaviours - and we can now teach the overweight sufferer how to "do it like a slim person" - eat, that is.

Starting with "cues" for eating, slim people eat when they're hungry much more than overweight people, who tend to eat "because it's there; because it's feeding time; because it's comforting". All of these non-hunger eating triggers are hazardous if they're the only triggers for eating. Of course, slim eaters will partake of a tasty restaurant meal if they're out for fun and they'll take their meals at regular intervals. But they will also be eating as a result of feeling hungry - mostly because they haven't been snacking between meals. Overweight people rarely experience hunger because they "top up". Instead, they eat because they eat. Important, then, for an overweight person to experience and "make friends with" healthy hunger.

Overweight people will eat more quickly and taste their food less than slim eaters. They will chew less and their food disappears from their plate rapidly - making room for seconds. They will clear up others' left-overs and rarely heed the internal messages that are saying "it's full in here: time to stop". If food's there, it's there to be eaten - "waste not, want not". A slim eater, however, will say "into the waste, not onto my waist".

Keeping food (decent food as well as convenience food) handy in quantity is also the downfall of many who are overweight. Open the fridge and take out a lump of cheese; cold cuts from yesterday (if any were left); butter for the toast; or a slab of chocolate - and that's another few calories that didn't need to be consumed. Slim eaters don't keep food "handy" - often shopping daily only for the day's meals (and, of course, benefiting from the exercise of walking to and round the shops every day as a bonus).

These and many other eating traits can be learned by overweight sufferers. Diets are actually pretty unnecessary and rarely last. Slim eating habits work simply because, well, they're how you're supposed to eat! Although it's not rocket science (pun not intended!), psychologists have compiled tips, hints and eating behaviour learning courses that will help overweight eaters to eat "slimly". And it doesn't have to mean that you're living on lettuce leaves for a week or two every few months! Thinking and eating slim is the lifestyle way to keep your body in shape.

Dr Robert Sharpe - Consultant Chartered Psychologist

LifeSkills self-help recordings have set the standard for excellence for the last 25 years. Thousands of GPs, hospital doctors, psychologists and counsellors recommend the LifeSkills series every year to their clients and patients and they are still the UK's best sellers.

Increase in Obesity Due to More Sedentary Jobs

As technology has made many jobs more sedentary, record numbers of Americans are also piling on the pounds, with new research confirming what many of us already suspected, this inactivity is a big contributor to the increase in obesity. Americans are actually burning from 120 to 140 less calories a day compared to just 50 years ago, in part because occupations have shifted from physically demanding to not so much. No surprise that the numbers of those overweight or obese have skyrocketed to what many consider epidemic proportions during these same years.

Researchers place a lot of the blame on calorie intake, though eating and exercise have both been widely studied. But with most of us spending more of our waking hours at work - what we do (or don't do) during those hours has a significant impact on daily activity.

Fifty years ago around 50% of jobs in the U.S. called for some type of physical activity (farming, construction, mining, manufacturing) as an integral part of the work, today it's around about 20% thanks to jobs in retail, business and education.

The authors contend that around 100 fewer calories burned each day would lead to the weight gain similar to what we've seen since 1960. If we were all following the government guidelines for being active (150 minutes of moderate activity, 70 minutes of vigorous activity) each week then we'd make up for the extra calories, but few of us are actually doing this, hence the levels of obesity and overweight. Only 25% of Americans are achieving this recommended amount of exercise on a regular basis.

It's the demands of our hectic life that make fitting in exercise so tough. Work and family keep us hopping, and our always on world doesn't help matters. What will is getting up and getting moving.

Putting conscious effort into moving more each day is a smart start. Suggestions like taking the stairs, parking far from the door, walking over to see at co-worker cube instead of sending an email, taking a walk at lunch or between meetings. If your company has an onsite gym, use it. If your benefit program helps out with the cost of health club memberships, take advantage of it.

The study authors suggest that companies need to do more to encourage activity at work... not only helping to stem the tide of obesity, but perhaps cutting the number of injuries as the unfit try to workout on the weekends.

In a book by a registered dietician the cornerstone of the plan is that the smallest, most simple changes can have a significant impact on what you eat and what you weigh. Working at your own pace, you take each tip in turn, and move on once you've mastered it. In no time you'll have made ten smart changes that will truly impact your weight. Not just for today, or the upcoming reunion... but from now on.

There's a great quote on exercise that drives the point home, especially true in today's mostly sedentary, "no time to workout" world with it's increase in obesity. "If you don't make time for regular exercise, sooner or later you'll have to make time for being ill"- the words of Edward Stanley (1826-1893).

FREE Bonus Secret Health Reports - For a limited time you can grab 5 FREE essential health reports from the Daily Health Bulletin. Click through now to discover other potential reasons behind the increase in obesity and how through diet and lifestyle changes you can lose weight and keep it off.

Obesity And It’s Effects

Obesity has been considered as one of the major problems around the world because obesity is a big problem in itself that leads to various kinds of other diseases. Hence obesity is one of the biggest problems around the world that leads to fatal diseases and related forms of mental difficulties also. Basically obesity is a situation in which the amount of fat built up and stored in the body crosses the healthy limits and if these fat stores exceed the healthy limits then the condition is termed as obesity. There are various levels of obesity also and there are several methods used to test for obesity.

But it should be remembered that obesity is a dangerous disease and it has various kinds of side effects. Obesity can affect the mind and body of the person and results in various kinds of ailments also. There is various health risks caused due to obesity and these include diseases like diabetes, arthritis, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, stroke, and some forms of cancer also. Most of these diseases are caused as the result of stress due to carrying around extra weight and this usually has unfavorable effects on the body. 

These problems can be corrected with diet and exercise to get rid of obesity but in stages of morbid obesity there are usually other solutions like operations that are implemented too. Researches have shown that obesity can lead to sudden death from heart diseases and this happens due to putting extra stress on the heart and the result is an overworked heart. This overworked heart is responsible for an increase in blood pressure and angina and thus it is not unusual for someone who is obese to fight with high blood pressure and greater cholesterol levels. 

None of the symptoms of obesity are healthy and if you are suffering from the same then it is best to implement for sorting out these problems. A major side effect of obesity is diabetes and it has been seen that obese people are twice as likely to generate diabetes as compared to those who are not overweight. They usually suffer from type 2 diabetes, which can lead to problems like heart disease and stroke. The solution here again is increase in physical activity and healthy combinations of food. 

It has been seen that obesity increases the chances of osteoarthritis and this happens because the excess body weight puts more pressure on the joint cartilage. As a result the joint most frequently affected is the knee and with weight loss the joint pain associated with obesity-onset osteoarthritis can also be reduced. Another problem suffered by obese people is a condition where a person stops breathing for short periods of time while they are sleeping and this is also known as sleep apnea. 

It should be remembered that obesity can also lead to mental problems like loss of self esteem and self confidence and thus curing obesity is the only solution to the same. There are various modes of getting rid of obesity and the healthiest options here are exercising and eating healthy.

How to Lose Weight Fast

If you are worried about your weight, you may turn to the Internet for information. Unfortunately, the information available on the internet can be misleading at times. After skimming various health portals that make unsupported claims, some people come to believe that weight loss can be achieved overnight with the help of weight loss pills, which is far from the truth. Nothing comes easy and you need to work a little harder to lose weight. Just think how much weight you have gained and how long you took to gain it. Just as you have been gaining weight in the last 3-4 years, it will take some time to lose it. It is possible that you will have to wait for six months to lose the amount of body fat you gained in the past few years.

There are many risks associated with rapid weight loss. Many slimming pills available on the market discourage people from eating healthy food and this further adds to the problem. If you aim at losing weight quickly, you are likely to suffer from malnutrition, gallstones, dehydration, low blood sugar and mineral or electrolyte imbalances. If you go on a starvation mode, you will be risking your health and immunity. It is never recommended to skip meals and not giving your body enough nutrition.

One of the best ways to deal with your weight problem is consulting a doctor. Talk to your doctor about your weight problem and inform him/her about all the medications or supplements you are currently using for weight loss. Xenical can be a good option for people who want to lose weight reliably and safely. This pill helps you reach your slimming target even if you do not work too hard on it. You do not have to cut your diet drastically when you are on the medicine.

This drug works by blocking the fat that you consume through your daily diet. It allows you to eat moderate amounts of fat without worrying about gaining weight. More than one-third of fat is blocked from getting absorbed in the body. You must complete the entire course of medicine before you can notice any good results. It might take as many as 90 days to notice the impact of Xenical on your body weight. Clinical studies show that Xenical has some side effects but they can be prevented if you take the pill exactly as recommended by your doctor.

This pill offers numerous health benefits. It improves your eating habits and helps you stick to a nutritious and balanced dietary regimen. If you eat a meal with a high fat content while taking this pill, you will have side effects such as oily spotting, flatulence, oily stools and uncontrolled bowel movements. Because of these reasons, it is advisable that you take Xenical with a low-fat and low-calorie diet. This pill also reduces your risk of developing diabetes and delays the progression of type 2 diabetes. This drug reduces the level of insulin in your body and prevents coronary heart disease. Xenical is safer than other slimming pills as its ingredients do not remain inside the body for too long.

Webmaster associated with online clinic "HealthExpress" this site provides various information on Xenical (Orlistat) and helps people in curing Obesity, resources are available on site HealthExpress.co.uk.

Fruit And Vegetable Guide For Creating Juicing for Weight Loss Recipes

This information provides you with helpful information for creating your own juicing for weight loss recipes. Most important is that juicing in tandem with your 
weight loss program can help you shed pounds.

Before listing the best fruits and vegetables for creating juicing for weight loss recipes there are a few important guidelines to keep in mind.

Most important is to beware of sugary fruit. Here is a partial list of high sugar content fruits that you should consume only occasionally: Plums, oranges, kiwifruit, pears, pineapple, tangerines, cherries, grapes, pomegranates, mangos, figs, and bananas. Yes, these are favorites but they will hinder your weight loss progress.

Also important is to mix juicing with a sensible diet. Juicing-only diets are not advised. They are potentially dangerous to your health. Such radical dieting should never be attempted without first consulting a physician.

As far as the number of times you should juice per day when juicing for weight loss, 3 times is adequate. Drink a juicing combination for breakfast and again for a mid-morning snack. Then eat your largest meal of the day for lunch. Follow with another juicing combo in the afternoon and then a moderate evening meal.

To create your juicing combinations select from the following vegetables and fruits:

Grapefruit, lemons, and limes- These should be your primary choices when adding fruit juice to your juicing combos.

Apples- The good news is that apples are about as good as it gets. They are sweet but a low glycemic fruit. Apples provide many health benefits including supporting healthy blood-sugar levels. When you need some nutritious sweetness for a combination include an apple.

Ginger- Just a sliver of ginger can provide flavor enhancement for many of your juicing combinations.

Carrot- Surprise, surprise! That veggie that your mom tried to get you to eat actually produces a sweet and delicious juice that will enhance your veggie combinations. Carrots aid digestions, cleanse the live, and provide high levels of beta-carotene.

Spinach- Also on your mom's list of favorites and for good reason. Spinach is rich in chlorophyll and calcium and helps to alkalize your body.

Cabbage- Yes, there really is something to cabbage for weight loss. Most importantly, cabbage is a potent antioxidant. Use cabbage liberally in juicing combinations.

Cucumber- Best for juicing is a variety called English cucumbers. This variety is more flavorful and doesn't overpower the flavors of other ingredients.

Tomato- As strange as it may seem, although acidic, tomatoes actually help reduce acid in the body. They help stimulate blood circulation, cleanse the liver, and work to purify the blood. They are also wonderful flavorful additions for your juicing combinations.

Beetroot- This is another vegetable that is good for your blood. Beets are also particularly good for your kidneys. Another benefit of this vegetable is that it adds sweetness to your combinations. Just don't over do it.

Lettuce- There are obviously many varieties of lettuce. For the purpose of accessing the most nutrients stick to the dark-green types of lettuce. Lettuce is alkalizing and mineral rich. Most green vegetables are alkaline rich and aid in maintaining a proper alkaline/acid pH balance in your body.

Watercress-This veggie is often overlooked but it should not be. Watercress is a powerful intestinal cleanser and toxin neutralizer. It's particularly good for the kidneys, bladder, blood circulation, cleansing the skin and serves to burn fat.

Just like any diet plan, to properly use dieting you must be disciplined. The good news is the juicing for weight loss recipes can help you shed pounds quickly.


by Richard Weirch