Connect with us

Health and Wellness

How much weight do you really need to lose? It may be a lot less than you think

Published

on

 

If you are considered one of one in three For Australians whose New Year’s resolution was to lose weight, you’re probably now wondering what weight loss goal you should actually be working towards.

But type “setting a weight loss goal” into any web search engine and you will likely be left with more questions than answers.

Sure, with the numerous weight loss apps and calculators available, setting this goal will be easy. They often use a body mass index (BMI) calculator to confirm a “healthy” weight and supply a goal weight based on this range.

Advertisement

Your screen will be crammed with influencers promoting diets that may help you lose ten kilos in a month, or ads for diets, pills, and exercise programs promising to help you lose weight quickly and effortlessly.

Most sales pitches suggest that you need to lose significant amounts of weight to stay healthy, which makes losing weight look like an unimaginable task. However, research shows that you haven’t got to lose a lot of weight to achieve health advantages.



Using BMI to determine your goal weight is inaccurate

We are a number-obsessed society. So it’s no surprise that we use measurements and equations to estimate our weight. The hottest is BMI, a measure of the ratio of body weight to height.

BMI classifies bodies as underweight, normal (healthy) weight, chubby or obese and may be a useful gizmo for weight and health management.

Advertisement

However, it shouldn’t be used as the only real measure of what it means to maintain a healthy weight when setting weight loss goals. This is because:

  • it doesn’t consider two key aspects related to body weight and health – body fat percentage and distribution
  • doesn’t consider significant differences in body composition based on gender, ethnicity and age.

How does losing weight affect our health?

Losing just 5-10% of your body weight – 6 to 12 kg for a 120 kg person – can significantly improve your health in 4 key ways.

1. Lowering levels of cholesterol

Obesity increases the chance of getting too much low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol – also often known as bad cholesterol – because carrying excess weight changes the way in which our body produces and manages lipoproteins and triglycerides – one other fat molecule we use for energy – .

Having too much bad cholesterol and high triglyceride levels isn’t good since it narrows our arteries and restricts blood flow, which increases the chance of heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

Advertisement

But tests shows that improvements in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are seen with as little as 5% weight loss.

2. Lowering blood pressure

Our blood pressure is taken into account high if it exceeds 140/90 at the very least twice.

It is chubby connected with hypertension in several waysincluding changing the way in which our sympathetic nervous system, blood vessels and hormones regulate our blood pressure.

Advertisement

Basically, hypertension causes our heart and blood vessels to work harder and less efficiently, over time damaging the arteries and increasing the chance of heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

Losing weight can lower your blood pressure.
Studio Prostock/Shutterstock

Like improving levels of cholesterol, losing 5% of body weight recovering each systolic blood pressure (the primary number within the reading) and diastolic blood pressure (the second number).

AND meta-analysis of 25 studies on the results of weight loss on blood pressure also found that every kilogram of weight loss improved blood pressure by one point.

3. Reducing the chance of type 2 diabetes

Advertisement

Excess body weight is the most important manageable risk factor for type 2 diabetes, especially in individuals who carry a lot of visceral fat across the belly (belly fat).

Carrying excess weight may cause fat cells to release pro-inflammatory chemicals that interfere with the body’s regulation and use of insulin produced by the pancreas, leading to high blood sugar levels.



Type 2 diabetes can lead to serious conditions if not treated properly, including damage to the guts, blood vessels, major organs, eyes and nervous system.

Tests shows that losing just 7% of body weight reduces the chance of developing type 2 diabetes by 58%.

Advertisement

4. Reducing joint pain and the chance of osteoarthritis

Carrying excess weight may cause inflammation and damage to the joints, making us more susceptible to osteoarthritis.

Observational studies show that being chubby doubles the chance of developing osteoarthritis, while obesity quadruples the chance.

Small amounts of weight loss ease the stress on our joints. In one study each kilogram of weight lost resulted in a fourfold reduction within the load on the knee in each step taken during every day activities.

Advertisement
Man on a bathroom scale
Losing weight eases the stress in your joints.
Shutterstock/Rostislav_Sedlacek

Focus on long-term habits

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight but found the kilos coming back almost as quickly as they went off, you’re not alone.

Some evaluation of 29 long-term weight loss studies found that participants regained more than half of the weight lost inside two years. Within five years, they recovered over 80%.

When we lose weight, we take our body out of its comfort zone and trigger its survival response. It then counteracts the weight loss by triggering several physiological reactions to defend body weight and “survive” hunger.



Just as the issue is evolutionary, the answer can also be evolutionary. Effective, long-term weight loss comes down to:

  • losing weight in small, manageable chunks that you can maintain, especially periods of weight loss followed by periods of maintaining the weight and so forth until you reach your goal weight
  • make gradual changes to your lifestyle to ensure you develop habits that may last a lifetime.

Setting a goal to achieve a healthy weight may seem difficult. However, this doesn’t have to be a predetermined weight consistent with the “healthy” BMI range. Losing 5-10% of your body weight could have immediate health advantages.

 

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : theconversation.com

Health and Wellness

Why the quality of gait is important as it ages

Published

on

By

Walking is one of the most important things that we do for our quality of life. In fact, Research shows It contributes greater than another physical activity in how well we live overnight. Already one in three People over the age of 60 report some difficulties in walking.

With age, gradual changes in our bodies and health can change the way I walk, often without realizing. But the way we go, known as our gait pattern, is more important than we might sound. Poor gait not only makes walking harder and more tiring; It can result in joint deformation, instability and greater risk of falls.

Think about your walk like a heart rhythm. Like electrocardiogram (EKG) shows whether your heart works properly, your walk also has a rhythm. When this rhythm is turned off, it will be one of the earliest signs that you’ll not age as well as you’ll be able to.

Advertisement

Thanks New technologyWe can now easier and thoroughly measure the quality of gait. One promising tool is Heel2toe wearing sensor. This small device attaches to the shoe and follows the movement of the ankle while walking, grabbing the series of gait in real time.



A healthy step begins with a heavy heel impact. Your weight moves on the sole of the foot, ending with pushing out of your toes. When the foot rises, it changes cleanly – without dragging or drawing. This smooth sequence creates a rhythm in the movement of the ankle, which, when it is coherent, resembles the type of “walking ECG”.

Advertisement

But with time, Many individuals are unknowingly accepting Less efficient movement patterns. These modified gaits could appear normal, but they are sometimes unstable, tiring or dangerous.

The older man fell to the floor while walking
A weak gait can increase the risk of falls.
https://www.shtterstock.com/image-photo/asian-senior-palling-on-grund-2147078055

Weak gait reduces confidenceIt increases the risk of falling and might discourage people from walking in any respect. The less we walk, the weaker our muscles turn out to be – deterioration of the problem. This is a flawed cycle.

Giving as much as walk well

The excellent news is that we are able to Losing our gait.

The Heel2toe sensor not only monitors your movements – that is also Encourages higher walking. When he detects a superb step (the one which starts with a heavy heel impact), provides audio guidance as positive feedback. Over time, the following pointers help discover a stronger, more stable walking pattern. Good gait becomes your latest norm. Tools such as Heel2toe help people tune in to their body signals and achieve sustainable progress.

The goal is not only to maneuver – it’s higher.

Advertisement

Of course, being physically energetic is Only one aspect What does it mean to live well as you aged.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjujlrx9GC

To get a more complete picture of healthy aging Researchers have developed A tool that measures how often older adults experience key facets of well -being. This tool – a tan measure (elderly people to energetic life) – goes beyond tracking what people do. He asks how they feel about their lives.

Opal may help people understand their very own well -being and offers decision -makers and communities a option to assess how their services support older residents – not only physically, but in addition socially and emotionally.

Advertisement

For people, which means that even small improvements, such as higher gait, can result in significant changes in how you’re feeling: more confident, more mobile and more independent.

For the community, it is a reminder that promoting physical activity is important – but insufficient. We also need programs, spaces and services that support the combination, goal, creativity and joy.

What does “active life” really mean?

IN International study 2024Older adults in Canada, Great Britain, the USA and the Netherlands shared, which suggests “active life” for them – in 4 languages ​​and cultural contexts.

They identified 17 different “ways of being” that contribute to activity. Physical health was just one part. Others included the feeling: self -confidence, combined, creative, energized, encouraged, engaged, glad, mentally healthy, independent, interested, mentally, motivated, resistant and self -sufficient.

Advertisement

In other words, energetic life is not only taking (or counting) steps, it’s about how you’re feeling while taking them.

Aging is inevitable. But is getting old well? This is something that we are able to shape – step-by-step.

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : theconversation.com
Continue Reading

Health and Wellness

The star Jones says “indignation” about the health of the heart will save your life

Published

on

By

The star Jones says

Ghettos

Advertisement

Star Jones was pioneering in lots of industries, including in law, television and health, and is an energetic volunteer of the American Heart Association.

Considering that that is the national month of women’s health, he works with MedtronicAn organization coping with medical devices, in an effort to increase awareness of heart disease in women and throwing light to a brand new study of women aged 30-50, sponsored by an organization that shows that heart health is a smaller motivator of biological renewal for ladies than maintaining the physical appearance or body (10%), despite the primary of the women’s killer. The study sheds light on the gap in the field of awareness and open discussions on heart health, despite over 60 million women in the United States living with some form of heart disease.

Jones is deeply conversant in women’s heart disease, because she was diagnosed with heart disease in 2010 and she or he was told that she would want operations on an open heart. Although Jones said that she was obese for a few years and worked on accepting weight, she was surprised by the specific symptoms she experienced, even when the weight disappeared. “The types of symptoms I had were not symptoms that normally would make the woman think about heart disease at least at the time. I fought with symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and dizziness or a garden when I was moving from sitting to standing,” he says to the essay. “I lost 150 pounds. I ate correctly. I got a huge number of exercises. I did what I should, but the symptoms were so annoying that I couldn’t just ignore them.”

Advertisement

Fortunately, Jones listened to her body and decided to go to her cardiologist, after which diagnosed in not heart disease. “My doctors conducted tests that were necessary, listening to my body, explaining my symptoms, and we found that I had an aortic valve failure, which caused my heart to work optimally, so I had to have an open heart surgery with the purpose of repairing aortic valve, so that we would not replace it or receive a heart transplant,” she shared. “So I literally saved my own life, knowing enough about myself and knowing that something is wrong.”

Although Jones got here from a family with a protracted history of heart disease, their health was not a subject. “I can rightly say that until I had an open heart surgery, she became the subject of conversation,” he says. Her experience and lack of open communication together with her family inspired her participation in a letter to my mother’s campaign, which inspires women to priority to heart health, starting with a conversation together with her mother or woman of their lives, about family history, risk aspects and symptoms of heart disease. The campaign, which is a component of Medtronic’s continuous involvement in conducting and developing clinical trials for ladies’s health, goals to scale back the gap in the awareness of heart and risk diseases, particularly heart valve failure and hypertension in women.

This month, Medtronic encourages women to commit to check with moms or women in life about the health of the heart and signs of heart disease they need to search for, equivalent to hypertension and irregular heartbeat.

The national coalition for ladies with heart disease, the leading voice of a nation for ladies living with heart disease or risking to risk, has discovered the following statistics:

Advertisement
  • One -third of women (30%) didn’t check with the doctor about heart health.
  • While greater than half of women are afraid that their old mother will ignore the symptoms or will not tell them when something is improper (53%), additionally they inform (56%) that they never talk about the health of the heart with their mother or other women in the family.
  • Almost half of women (45%) would favor to debate politics, money or relationships with mother or grandmother before discussing the history of family health.
  • Women argued preventive health care, equivalent to demonstration and routine controls, as the most vital conversation with mother or mother, since it still ages (35%) in comparison with funds (12%), pensions (5%) or plans at the end of life (16%).
  • Of the women from the sandwich generation with the family history of heart disease, only a 3rd (35%) asked the doctor to evaluate the risk of heart and only 44% talked about it with the family.

Although it will possibly be annoying, Jones encourages women, especially black women, to talk and tell their health. “Earlier I talked to a friend from Medtronic about underestimated communities, colorful people and women who are nervous about these conversations, which they mean in their lives, how to approach them, and even have access to doctors, and treatment that would allow them to support themselves for themselves. As we know, heart disease is really a number of deadly all women. I thought that this is a disease of an old white guy.”

Jones continues: “The numbers tell us that more than half of the risk of heart disease is hereditary. Therefore, it is really important to understand the history of your family. So you want to start with when you speak behind. And that’s why the letter to my mother’s campaign is so important, because it is a way to combine to start asking family members about health history and so it will start with a potentially reviving life.”

Advertisement
This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
Continue Reading

Health and Wellness

Al Roker shares his journey into prostate cancer and offers an encouragement to Joe Biden

Published

on

By

Al Roker makes sure Joseph Biden knows that he will not be alone amongst his recent diagnosis of prostate cancer.

On Friday, May 18, Biden’s personal office announced that the 82-year-old former president was diagnosed with prostate cancer with a rating of 9 Gleason on 9.

“Although this is a more aggressive form of the disease, cancer seems to be sensitive to hormones, which allows for effective management,” he read the statement. “The president and his family are looking at the treatment options for their doctors.”

Advertisement

The next day Roker, 70, thought of his journey with the disease that began in 2020. TODAY show.

“When I was diagnosed, I had 8 on Gleason’s scale, but they said they caught it early, even though it was aggressive, so I had a fairly wide range of treatment options,” said Roker.

Television personality for the primary time announced that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in November 2020. Later this month he underwent surgery within the New York Sloan Sloan Cancer Center to remove its prostate and some surrounding lymph and absorbent nodes.

According to Cleveland ClinicThe Gleason result’s a system of assessing prostate cancer, which ranges from 1, when cancer cells look essentially the most like normal cells, to 10, when cancer cells look very different from healthy cells. The lower the result, the slower the cells will probably grow.

Advertisement

In May 2021 ROKER’s Six months control Nothing detected at the extent of a prostate -specific antigen (dog) was found, which suggests that it was in clarity. At that point he said People magazineHe was “grateful” to have the ability to see his first grandson.

“If there is a reason to make sure you are as healthy as possible, it is,” he said.

Roker, who fought all his life with constant health problems, also shared the words of encouragement to biden within the post on X.

“Mr. President. When I found out from my battle with prostate cancer, you are part of a group in which no one wants to be a part,” he wrote about Rak, which plague, On average, one in eight men. “But knowing you, you will face this latest challenge with courage, humor and grace.”

Advertisement
Al Roker becomes a grandfather, he insists that the child's name is not related to his work

(Tagstranslate) al corer

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending