Why Lose Weight?

Do you look in the mirror and you just don't like what you see? An inflatable tube has taken up residence on your waist, and your butt seems to have dropped a couple of inches. You take a look at your face and you start to see the development of a little bit of waddle underneath the chin.

What do you do? Why is this happening? Better yet, what is happening to my body when I gain weight? These are all fantastic questions that are going to be answered on how to lose weight, and keep it off.

Many people ogle the beautiful bodies on the beach - men and women alike. Nice, tight round bottoms, flat stomachs and well toned bodies.

I'll be honest, there are some who don't need to do a darn thing and they stay in relatively good shape, but for the vast majority of people need to take notice of what they eat, how much they eat, and how much daily exercise they are getting.

Why does our weight matter so much to us? Probably for two reasons - physical appearance and health.

Physical appearance

No one really wants to be fat - plain and simple. For many people physical appearance is linked directly to their self-esteem. If they believe their body is undesirable to others, they can become depressed, or stressed and it causes serious emotional problems. Worse yet, in some people, it can trigger the impulse to eat even more, making the problem even worse. The emotional side of being obese is only just being charted in the medical world. It is already understood that a person's self-worth and self-confidence can be shattered if they gain excess weight...But the emotional toll it can take over an extended period of time might be considerably more damaging.

Health Concerns

You have no doubt heard the numerous health-related problems that come from being overweight. Even being 20 lbs overweight can start to cause hidden health problems.

Instead of that lower back pain being from yesterday's squash game, it's because your body isn't used to carrying an extra 20 lbs on the front end. Imagine, right now, if you were to strap a 20 lb weight to your belly and walk around with it all day long. An extremely increased weight can put considerable stress on your joints, especially if you aren't set up (height) to handle that sort of weight.

Then, we get to the biggies - heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. Oh, and don't forget diabetes. These are pretty serious players in the health world. In fact, they are the largest killers of human beings in the world.

Medical Fact:

In a study of 5881 people over a 14-year period, doctors revealed that someone who is merely 'overweight' has a 34% greater chance of heart failure. A person who is considered obese has a 104% increase in risk of heart failure over someone who is in their target weight range.