Weight Loss Articles

Obesity is one of these subjects that everyone has been hearing about for the last few years. It has been becoming progressively worse for the past twenty years, but we seem to just now be realizing this. America has the greatest obesity ratio in the developed world. The amount of obese children and adults has doubled in the last twenty-five years. In 2004, nearly one fifth of the total kids were obese and nearly a third of the total adults past 20 were overweight. This means the number of people who are risking their health by being too large goes in the millions. It is now thought of as one of the biggest health risks in the country as the prevalence of obesity continues to get out of control. 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, the people of this country began to began to make many lifestyle changes that caused it to become a more sedentary lifestyle. The biggest impact was the eating habits. Meals that used to be eaten at home and prepared by the homemaker are now more and more often eaten in restaurants and fast food chains. Fast food portions that were standard in the 60's are two to three times bigger in today's popular restaurants. A meal in most of today's most common sit-down restaurants can be two to three times the size of a McDonald's Big Mac, even though the popular restaurant has been under fire the last few years as the leading culprit for our obesity problem. Only one of these super-sized meals can be somebody's entire day's necessary calories.

Another major reason for being over weight is the sedentary lifestyle that most Americans live. Most adults have automobiles and drive them to get anywhere they go, even if we could walk. Most people have a hard time allotting the time to exercise due to the busy lifestyles or long work days. Many occupations are now less physically demanding as technology has advanced. So now many Americans will work at the office on a computer all day and do nothing active all day because they are exhausted from work.

Wealth and abundance is another major factor that appears to link to obesity. The need to conserve goods and foods goes away gradually as people in developed nations acquire more and more money. Children that a few of generations ago could have been more limited on food selections because of a families income nowadays are given wider and bigger options in what they partake in. Children now get their earliest eating habits eating rich, high calorie restaurant foods with their parents. The U.S. Makes close to triple the food than we consume, so the majority of citizens don't care where or how their food is made and decide from cravings.

The weight problem affects you whether you're overweight or not. In the airplane industry, lawsuits to widen passenger seats that are started against airlines by obese customers and the added gas that is required to move all this extra weight is now costing Americans an estimated 275,000,000 dollars a year now in increased air fares. An annual cost 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 costs. Litigation with obese plaintiffs became so common, the government even tried to make laws protecting food producers with the Cheeseburger bill of 2004.

BMI, or body mass index is what is used to calculate obesity. The risk for getting bad health conditions raises 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 overweight is twice as likely to suffer a life threatening health problem prematurely than a normal person. Obesity causes the death of an estimated 112,000 people in this country per year. The risk of a heart attack, stroke, cancer, liver disease, and diabetes are just some of the possible conditions that come along with obesity. breathing problems, swollen legs, and depression.