Weight Loss Articles

Being overweight is one of those issues that everyone has been talking about for the past few years. Things have been getting gradually worse for the past twenty years, but we are just realizing this. The country with the highest obesity rate on the earth is America. In the last 25 years the amount of fat adults and adolescents have doubled. 32% of all adults over 20 and 17% of all kids were obese as of 2004. This means the amount of people who are chancing their health by being too fat ranges in the millions. It is now considered one of the largest health risks in the country as the prevalence of over weight americans continues to get out of control. What happened to make us all so big? This overall increase in size has many contributing environmental factors and unfortunately they are now thought of as the American way of life.

Americans began to change factors of daily activity that made them more sedentary in the 1980's. Eating habits was the first problem. Restaurants and fast food chains where now the most popular places for family dinner no longer at the home prepared the traditional way. Due to competition, restaurants now have portion sizes that double or even triple the ones back in the early fast food days. Fast food restaurants like the McDonald's chain have have had a lot of criticizing for their super sizing high calorie sodas and french fries in the last few years, but a meal served in Most of today's most common restaurants may be over double the size of a McDonald's hamburger, with an amount of fries to match this unhealthy meal. Those of us that are accustomed to devouring everything on their plates can get their full amount of calories in one sitting with one of these meals.

BMI, or body mass index is what we use to calculate obesity. The risk for getting bad health problems goes up as ones 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+. A person that is forty percent obese is two times as likely to suffer a life threatening medical problem early than a normal person. Currently, obesity kills an estimated 112,000 Americans a year. Only some of the possible conditions that are associated with being overweight are; cancer, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, and liver disease. breathing problems, swollen legs, and depression.

Many of us live a lazy life, another major factor of obesity. Most people have cars and use them to travel anywhere they go, even if it is a very short distance. Most of us have difficulty finding the time to work out because of on the go lifestyles or extended work schedules. Most occupations are becoming less active as technology has advanced. So now those of us who come home from work and rest because they are worn out from their job will get small amounts of physical exercise throughout.

Obesity affects you whether you're in those demographics or not. In the airline industry, lawsuits to make larger passenger seats that are started against airlines by obese people and the extra fuel that is required to move all this extra weight is now costing us an estimated 275,000,000 dollars a year now in increased air fares. In the medical field, health issues created by the weight problem now make up 10% of all medical bills with a yearly cost of 78,500,000,000 dollars. Litigation with overweight plaintiffs became so common, the government even tried to create laws protecting food makers with the Cheeseburger bill of 2004.

Obesity has also escalated because of American affluence. As citizens in developed nations acquire more and more money, the need or worry to conserve is diminished gradually. Children that a few of generations ago would have been more controlled on food selections because of a families income today are allowed more choices in what they choose to eat. Children now get their first eating lessons consuming rich, high calorie restaurant foods with their parents. More of us are not concerned in where our food comes from but focus more on our personal desires in a society that makes nearly triple what it's whole population consumes.