8 Risks Of Being Overweight Or Obese
The rhetoric around losing weight is often focused on reaching a certain goal, striving for an aesthetic outcome, or feeling better about yourself overall. While all of these goals are worthy on their own, they don’t really capture how important weight is to your health.
Most people are aware that being overweight or obese has negative effects on your health, but do you know why this is true? Having knowledge of exactly how obesity can impact your health could be the reality check someone needs to start taking steps to regaining control over their health and weight.
At the end of the day, reaching a goal weight or looking a certain way in your clothes is great, but growing old with your family, avoiding lengthy and expensive hospital stays and medications, and overall physical and mental comfort are much more important and impactful to your life.
So, what are the risks?
Type 2 diabetes
High blood pressure
Cardiovascular disease
Breathing problems
Arthritis
Fertility issues
Poor organ function
Poor mental Health
Type 2 Diabetes
Nine out of ten people with Type 2 Diabetes are overweight or obese. This disease occurs when your blood glucose is too high. Risks of Type 2 Diabetes over the long term can include heart disease, kidney disease, nerve damage, and eye problems. People with Type 2 Diabetes can eventually go blind or require amputation of extremities.
High blood pressure
A larger body size causes your body to have to work harder to pump blood throughout your body. By working harder, your blood is moving through your blood vessels with great force, putting excess pressure on your blood vessels and your heart. High blood pressure puts you at greater risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease.
Cardiovascular disease
Not only does high blood pressure affect your heart health, but high cholesterol, and high blood glucose can put your heart health at risk. All of these things put you at greater risk for heart attack, stroke, and abnormal heart rhythm.
Breathing problems
When you are overweight or obese, fat is not just stored around your belly and thighs, it’s everywhere, including around your neck and lungs. Being overweight can lead to breathing issues like sleep apnea and asthma.
Sleep apnea is caused when your upper airway becomes blocked, making your breathing irregular or even causing you to stop breathing for short periods of time. Asthma is caused when your airways become inflamed and narrowed, making you wheeze or cough. Both of these issues can be caused by being overweight and losing weight can help to lessen or even cure them.
Arthritis
Being overweight puts a lot of extra pressure on your joints and cartilage. This pressure puts you at higher risk of developing arthritis, a condition that causes chronic pain, swelling, and stiffness of your joints. Your hip, knee, and ankle joints are at the most risk of developing arthritis due to excess weight. Your symptoms can be greatly reduced by maintaining a healthy weight.
Fertility issues
Obesity can cause infertility in both men and women. Men can develop a low sperm count and women can have difficulty ovulating, conceiving, and are at greater risk of miscarriage. There are other pregnancy risks which are higher in overweight or obese women including gestational diabetes and preeclampsia.
Poor organ function
Other than the heart, there are other risks to your organs due to obesity. For example, fat can build up around the liver, lowering its function and putting you at risk for cirrhosis or liver failure. Higher cholesterol, common in overweight patients, can also cause problems in the gallbladder and pancreas. Finally, kidney disease is a risk factor for overweight patients as a result of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Poor mental Health
Other than the physical risks of being overweight or obese, poor mental health is a significant and common issue that is associated with poor health. If you are facing health consequences due to your weight, you are likely under additional stressors resulting from both pain and treatment.
Overweight and obese patients are also at a higher risk for poor body image, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. Exercise and a healthy diet can help to relieve some symptoms of poor mental health and can create endorphins and lessen physical symptoms associated with any of the illnesses we’ve discussed.
Do it for you!
I hope this article has been informative regarding the risks associated with being overweight and has made you feel empowered to take control of your health.
While fitting into a certain size or feeling good in your clothes is certainly a worthy goal, it is much more important to your quality and longevity of life to strive for your healthiest weight. Focusing away from aesthetics and instead on how much better you will feel puts the emphasis on what you gain rather than lose.
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