Weight Loss Articles

Obesity is one of these subjects that everyone has been talking about for the last couple years. It seems that all of a sudden everybody woke up one day and found a stack of pancakes in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other. The United States has the highest obesity rate in the developed world. The amount of obese adolescents and grown-ups has doubled in the last twenty-five years. Nearly a third of the total adults past 20 and nearly a fifth of all children were obese in 2004. This means that millions are too big and risking their health. It is now thought of as one of the biggest health hazards in the country as the prevalence of over weight americans continues to get out of control. The country is huge; how did this happen? Many environmental factors that are now very commonplace are blamed to be the causes of this general increased girth.

Americans began to change their daily activities and that made them more sedentary in the 1980's. The main change was the eating habits. Restaurants and quick service chains where now the most popular places for family dinner no longer at the home the traditional way. Fast food portions that were common in earlier years are two to three times bigger in today's popular restaurants. A meal in most of our most common sit-down restaurants can be two to three times the size of a McDonald's Big Mac, even though the popular chain has been under fire the last few years as the leading culprit for America's weight problem. Only one of these super-sized meals can be a person's entire day's required calories.

BMI, or body mass index is what we use to measure obesity. The risk for getting bad health problems goes up as a person's BMI raises. The three main levels of obesity are mild obesity with a BMI of 30+, morbid obesity at BMI 40+, and malignant obesity with a BMI of 50+. An average human has half the risk of getting a life threatening medical problem than an obese individual who is 40% overweight. Obesity kills an estimated 112,000 Americans per year. The risk of a heart attack, stroke, cancer, liver disease, and diabetes are just a few of the possible conditions that are associated with obesity. breathing problems, swollen legs, and depression.

Obesity affects you whether you're overweight or not. An estimated 275,000,000 dollars a year is what Americans are spending in air fares due to increased fuel costs to haul the added weight and lawsuits to widen passenger seats brought on by obese plaintiffs. In the medical field, health conditions caused by obesity now make up nearly 10% of all medical bills with a yearly cost of 78,500,000,000 dollars. The cheeseburger bill of 2004 was started by lawmakers to attempt to offer some protection for food makers after lawsuits with overweight clients became so prevalent.

Wealth and abundance is another big factor that appears to link to obesity. The need to save goods and foods goes away gradually as citizens in developed countries acquire more and more wealth. Kids that a few of decades ago might have been more controlled on food selections due to a families budget nowadays are given more options in what they partake in. With parents that eat out all the time due to disposable income allows them to show their kids early in poor eating habits with rich, high calorie restaurant foods. More Americans are less concerned about where our food comes from and focus mainly on our personal desires in a society that produces nearly triple what it's whole population eats.

Many of us live a lazy life, another major factor of the weight problem. Most people own cars and drive them to travel anywhere they go, even if we could walk. Many of us have difficulty allotting the time to exercise due to the on the go lifestyles or long work days. As technology has become more available most jobs are getting less physical. This Causes people who come home from work and relax because they are tired from their job will get little or no physical exercise all day long.