| Dealing with Obesity Before it Even Happens
Obesity is a public health problem. A large percentage of Americans are obese if not morbidly obese, and their condition is made even more complicated with life-threatening, debilitating and disruptive health problems. It’s one thing to know that obesity if hereditary – if your parents had it, there’s a good chance you could be gaining pounds unreasonably, but to genes isn’t the only culprit behind the prevalence of this silent traitor. Lifestyles that cause obesity can be inherited too.
Obesity is preventable, gene or no gene. But the even bigger question is, how?
Invest in healthy dietary choices. Avoid fads that promise weight loss – instead, go for all natural foods high in vitamins and minerals, but keep a close watch on the calories. It’s not really about the amount of food you take in, but it’s more of how much calories you take in per meal. To keep your digestive system running smoothly, stay away from too much salt (which make your body retain excessive water) or sugar (which gets stored in a body as fats). Eat plenty of high-quality protein, but make sure your choices are low in fat. For example, choose low-fat dairy, and go for lean meat over a chunky, greasy steak.
Move around. Remember the calorie balance equation: a person can maintain ideal weight if the calories he eats roughly equal the calories he uses when he exerts physical effort and when his body performs its basic functions. Sedentary practices are one of the leading causes of obesity. Eating too much but not using any of the calories causes the latter to be stored in different parts of the body, especially the mid-section.
Watch your stress levels. People who encounter stress often may resort to ineffective ways of dealing with it – one of these is stress-eating or emotional eating. This can gradually lead to unused calories that eventually cause obesity.
Finally, rest well. The body needs to be active to burn calories, but it also needs sleep for the most crucial functions to be performed. Cells work better when a person has regular and decent sleep.
|
