Weight Loss Articles

Being overweight is one of these issues that everybody has been hearing about for the past few years. It seems that suddenly everyone woke up one morning and found a milkshake in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other. The U.S. has the greatest obesity ratio in the developed world. In the last twenty-five years the number of overweight adults and adolescents have doubled. thirty-two percent of all adults over 20 and 17% of all kids were too heavy in 2004. This basicallymeans that millions are overweight and risking their health. The amount of unhealthy people continues to rise in America and other developed nations and is now one of the biggest health threats in the country. What happened to make us all so big? Many environmental factors that are now very commonplace are believed to be the causes of this general increased size.

During the 1980's, our people began to started to make many lifestyle changes that caused it to become a more sedentary lifestyle. The first was the eating habits. Meals that used to be consumed at home and cooked by the women are now more often eaten in restaurants and quick service chains. Fast food portions that were standard in earlier years are 2-3 times bigger in today's popular restaurants. Fast food chains like the McDonald's chain have come under serious fire for their extra large high calorie sodas and french fries in the past, but a cheeseburger available in Most of today's most common restaurants could be over two times the size of a McDonald's hamburger, with an amount of fries to match this enormity. Only one of these extra large meals can be somebody's entire day's necessary calories.

The weight problem affects you whether you're overweight or not. An estimated 275,000,000 dollars a year is what we are spending in air fares because of increased fuel charges to haul the extra weight and lawsuits to make larger passenger seats started by obese plaintiffs. An annual total of 78,500,000,000 dollars is the price of treating the number of health complications started because of obesity, as it makes up nearly 10% of all medical expenditures. Litigation with obese people became so prevalent, the government even tried to create laws protecting food producers with the Cheeseburger bill of 2004.

Affluence is another major reason that seems to link to the weight problem. As citizens in developed countries get more and more money, the requirement or concern to conserve is lowered gradually. Bigger and more different options are now available to kids compared a generation or two ago when a family's budget could control this. Children now get their first eating experiences eating rich, unhealthy restaurant foods with their parents. The U.S. Makes almost triple the food than we consume, so most people don't care where or how the meal is made and decide from cravings.

BMI, or body mass index is what is used to measure obesity. The higher the BMI, the more likely the person is to be in poor health. There are three levels of obesity; mild obesity with a BMI of 30+, morbid obesity at BMI 40+, and malignant obesity with a BMI of 50+. A person that is forty percent overweight is twice as likely to suffer a fatal medical problem early than an average person. Obesity causes the death of an estimated 112,000 Americans per year. The risk of a heart attack, stroke, cancer, liver disease, and diabetes are just some of the possible ailments that come along with being overweight. There are also a number of non-deadly ailments like depression, loss of bowel control, breathing problems, and swollen legs.

Another major reason for obesity is the sedentary life that most of us live. Nowadays, even if it is an easy walk, many Americans will take our vehicles. Crazy lifestyles and hectic work schedules make it hard for most people to allocate the time to exercise. Many jobs are now less active as technology has advanced. This Causes Americans who come home from work and relax because they are tired from their job will get little or no physical activity throughout.