Why Losing Weight is Pure Gold

There are many great benefits to be had from losing weight.  Though losing weight is not easy, the long term positive effects brought about by it would be advantageous to anyone considering shedding those unwanted and unhealthy pounds.

The following are a just few of the remarkable advantages of losing any excess weight.

Losing Weight helps prevent high blood pressure,
heart disease & stroke
Here are three 'major' benefits right of the bat.  It's a fact that heart disease and stroke are two of the primary reasons for disability and death in both men and women in the US.  People who are overweight have a far higher risk of having high levels of cholesterol in their blood stream along with triglycerides (also known as blood fat) which both can be major contributing causes of these conditions.  Sudden death can occur from heart disease and stroke and usually with very little warning or symptoms.

Angina, another type of heart disease, can decrease the amount of oxygen pumped to the heart resulting in chest pains and possible heart failure.

It's a known fact that decreasing your weight by a mere five to ten percent could positively decrease the chances of you having or developing heart disease or stroke.  Plus, how your heart functions would also improve along with a decrease in your blood pressure and your cholesterol and triglyceride counts.  In overweight people the heart is forced to work extremely hard - much harder than in those not overweight.

Losing Weight prevents both types of diabetes
Diabetes can put one's life in jeopardy.  Both types of diabetes, type one and type two, are linked with being overweight.  To those who already have diabetes, regular exercise and losing weight could help in controlling your blood sugar levels.  Increasing your physical activity through simply walking, jogging or dancing can make an enormous difference.  It helps to get the blood stream moving along with helping to lose those unnecessary pounds.

A not-so-drastic but very real effect of having diabetes is the change in one's lifestyle caused by having to continually monitor one's health, having to take medication via daily injections or other forms and by having to carefully watch what one can and can't eat.

Many people find these restrictions quite limiting and some have even said they take 'all the fun out of life'.  This raises the serious but very relevant question, "Do you really want to avoid all this?"  Well, you can - all you have to do is get rid of that excess weight.  Easier said than done, I know, but anything that's 'good' in life is usually not very easy to attain.  There's always some sacrifices required to make the 'good' happen.

Losing Weight helps reduce your risk for cancer
Being overweight is linked with a number of different kinds of cancer.  Specially for women, the common types of cancer associated with being overweight include cancer of the uterus, gallbladder, ovary, breast, and colon.  This is not meant to scare you, but only to keep you informed.  Men are at risk too of developing cancer if they are overweight.  These include cancer of the colon, prostate and rectum.

Losing Weight reduces sleep apnea
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep (followed by bouts of heavy snoring) and is extremely common in those who are overweight or obese.  Sleep apnea sufferers have a 30% higher risk of heart attack or heart failure or even premature death when compared to those unaffected.

Each episode, called an apnea, lasts long enough so that one or more breaths are missed with such episodes occurring repeatedly throughout sleep.  Symptoms of sleep apnea may be present for years (or even decades) without being identified, during which time the sufferer may become conditioned to the daytime sleepiness and fatigue associated with significant levels of sleep disturbance.  Many sufferers don't even know they have the condition and they wonder why they're always exhausted.

The great news is that losing excess weight can actually help to eliminate sleep apnea all together.

Losing Weight reduces the pain of osteoarthritis
When one is overweight, the joints of his or her knees, hips and lower back have to exert double – if not triple – the effort to carry him or her through out his or her waking, walking and moving life.  This will cause increased tension and stress on these joints.  Weight loss decreases the load these joints must carry thus decreasing – if not eliminating – the pain for those who have osteoarthritis.

As you can see, being overweight or obese is not just a matter of 'carrying around some extra pounds' - it can also have a severe compounding effect on your overall health, quality of life and life expectancy.  So, making sure you become fitter and therefore healthier is a 'must' for absolutely everyone - if you want to live a longer, healthier and happier life that is.