Reasons for Weight Loss

There are so many people wanting to lose weight, but what is their primary reason to do so? Many of young girls who are in good shape already still think they have extra pounds to work on and they get skinnier and skinner. At the same time many obese people feel comfortable and do not see a reasonable motive to drop at least some weight.

Weight control should be the matter of health not appearance. American Heart Association says that the risk of early death increases with weight. Over 110,000 deaths a year are related to obesity in some respect.

Here are a few reasons the obese person should think of:

• A weight gain of 11-18 pounds increases the risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes to twice comparing to people with healthy weight. It has been noticed that out of all people with diabetes 80% are overweight.
• Every extra 2 pounds increase the risk of arthritis by 9-13%.
• Obesity is partly blamed for being a helper in development of several types of cancer: endometrial, colon, gall bladder, prostate, kidney and postmenopausal breast cancer.
• Almost all obese people have high blood pressure. This increases the risk of a heart attack or cardiovascular disease.
• Breathing problems are also common in overweight people: first of all many obese people have sleep apnea which means they stop breathing for some time in sleep, and secondly they have a high chance to develop asthma.
• Bad news for women: if they gain more 20 pounds from the age of 18 to the time they are 40, they double the risk to have postmenopausal breast cancer compared to the women with healthy weight.
• Losing weight helps to lower blood pressure, bad cholesterol level, high levels of blood glucose which develops diabetes, decrease depression and risk of osteoarthritis and increase self-esteem.

All these reasons are good enough to show how additional weight influences on people’s health. It is hard to imagine people who do not care about their health and are ready to face all the above mentioned problems, but at the same time there are so many obese people who do not want to do anything with their weight.

Before starting with any weight loss program a person should make a list of individual reasons for weight loss. Being concerned about health and good look are primary reasons, but one can write down some uncommon and funny-sounding, but very important reasons such as:

• To look good in tight clothes.
• To be able to bend over comfortably to tie shoes.
• To not worry about chairs breaking.
• To be able to wear something that does not say “Plus” size.

These reasons will be helpful later when the person schedules the workouts and diet plans because every time the goal is achieved the reasons list will be a reminder what a great work is done!