Weight Loss Articles

These past few years, everybody has been learning more about the effects of being overweight. It seems that all of a sudden we all woke up one day to find a stack of pancakes in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other. The United States has the greatest obesity ratio in the developed world. The number of obese adolescents and grown-ups has grown by 100% in the past twenty-five years. Nearly a third of all adults over 20 and 17% of all kids were overweight as of 2004. This means the number of people who are risking their health by being obese ranges in the millions. It is now thought of as one of the biggest health risks in the country as the prevalence of over weight americans continues to rise. What happened to make us all so big? This overall increase in size has many contributing environmental factors and unfortunately they are now considered the American way of life.

Americans began to change factors of daily activity that made them more sedentary in the 1980's. The main change was the eating habits. Restaurants and quick service chains began to be the most popular places for family dinner no longer at the home prepared the traditional way. Fast food portions that were standard in earlier years are two to three times bigger in today's popular restaurants. Fast food restaurants like the McDonald's chain have have had a lot of criticizing 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. Those of us that are used to devouring the entire contents of their plates can sit down and get their full amount of calories in one sitting with one of these combos.

Obesity has also grown because of American affluence. The need to conserve goods and foods goes away gradually as citizens in developed countries acquire more and more wealth. Bigger and more varied options are now offered to children compared a generation or two ago where a family's income could limit this. With parents that eat out all the time because disposable income allows them to show their children early in poor eating habits with rich, high calorie restaurant foods. Our country Makes nearly 3times more food than U.S. residents eat, so the majority of people are not worried about where or how the food is made and decide from cravings.

Obesity is calculated with a body mass index, or BMI. The higher the BMI, the more likely the person is to be in poor health. 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 2 times as likely to suffer a life threatening health problem early than a normal person. Today, obesity is responsible for the deaths of an estimated 112,000 Americans a 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.

Most of us have a sedentary lifestyle, another major cause of the weight problem. Today, even if it is an easy walk, most of us will drive our vehicles. Many people have difficulty finding the time to exercise because of busy lifestyles or extended work schedules. More jobs are now less physically demanding as technology has advanced. This Causes people who come home from work and rest because they are tired from their job will get small amounts of physical exercise all day long.

Whether obese or not, you are still affected by the rising obesity rate. An estimated 275,000,000 dollars a year is what we are spending in air fares because of increased fuel charges to haul the added weight and lawsuits to widen passenger seats started by obese plaintiffs. In the medical field, health issues created by obesity now create nearly 10% of all medical expenditures with a yearly cost of 78,500,000,000 dollars. Litigation with overweight plaintiffs became so prevalent, the government even tried to make laws protecting food producers with the Cheeseburger bill of 2004.