Why Lose Weight?

Even a few extra pounds can be severely detremental to your health. Did you know that each pound you have is an extra 4 pounds on your knees? Or that even moderate weight excess (10 to 20 pounds for a person of average height) increases risk of death, particulary among adults between 30 to 64?

Here are your risks of being overweight:

• A weight gain of 11 to 18 pounds increases the risk 2x of developping type 2 diabetes
• Over 80% of people with diabetes are overweight or obese.
• About 112,000 deaths per year are due to obesity.
• Increasing weight and being overweight raises the risk of death significantly.
• Increased risk of developing arthritis by 9 to 13 percent for every 2-pound weight increase.
• Obese people have a higher risk of excess death from all causes.
• Higher prevalence of asthma.
• High blood pressure and higher heart disease in obesity
• Obesity increases risk of heart disease.
• Sleep apnea
• Associated with an increased risk for canccer, including endometrial, gall bladder, prostate, colon, kidney and postmenopausal breast cancer.
• Women double their risk of postmenopausal cancer if they gain more than 20 pounds from age 18 to midlife.

Scary, isn't it? Don't lose your life over something you can change. Check out if you are at risk for developing these complications by starting at the beginning: see if your BMI is normal.