Obesity - Can you be fat and happy?

Obesity is the most common health and nutritional related problem that many of us are facing today. For most people obesity is frustrating and difficult to overcome. Not only does it give them a poor self image, but a lot of fat people would agree with me that they have been subject to one or the other kind of discrimination at some point in their lives. It is a fact that only very few people are truly ' fat and happy '.

Other than being emotionally damaging, obesity is linked to a number of health related problems like -

• Inreased risk of heart diseases, blood pressure, stroke and diabetes.
• Shortness of breath and difficulty in being mobile.
• Obese people are twice as likely to develop certain kinds of cancer.
• Excessive weight causes damage to the weight bearing joints leading to osteoarthritis and disability.

Causes of obesity

• The most important reason for obesity is overeating. When we consume more than is needed, all that surplus food gets converted and stored as fat in our bodies.
• The second reason for being obese is to having minimum to no physical activity in our lives.

Taking control of obesity

• Obesity can be controlled successfully by following a combination of exercise and diet in our daily routine.
• By limiting calorie intake to about 1500 calories/day for a woman and 2000 calories/day for a man.
• By limiting or completely removing the empty calories ( of no nutritiona lvalue ) found in alcohol, sugary desserts, high fat and high salt snacks from our diets.
• Consuming more of vegetables and fruits.

More important than losing weight is to keep that fat off . This can be done by following a sensible diet and making exercise a part of our lives.