Basically obesity is when a person has an excessive amount of body fat. Not only does the problem of obesity lie in how a person looks, but it also causes some great health concerns. Obesity can lead to many serious medical conditions including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Levels of body fat in a person are calculated using a formula called BMI or Body Mass Index. If an adult has a BMI of over 30 then they are considered to be obese. If an adult has a BMI of over 40 then they are extremely obese or also known as morbidly obese. The more obese that a person is then the more susceptible they are to serious health conditions.

It is an unfortunate statistic, but one in three Americans is considered to be obese. The number of overweight people is rising all the time due to the huge amount of junk foods available these days and also the lack of exercise. A person can slowly become overweight and then obese before they even realize that they have a problem. When they do realize that they are putting their health at risk with their weight then they may begin to look at weight loss programs to try and lose that excess weight.

As well as heart disease and diabetes, obesity may also cause sleep apnea, snoring, difficulty sleeping, pain in the back and joints, rashes and infections in the creases of the skin, excessive sweating, and get out of breathe easily, fatigue and depression. Any one of these problems can become a real issue for a person and this is when you should seek help to gain control of your weight and ease any of these symptoms. It will not be easy to change your lifestyle and lose weight and you will need to be prepared to make dietary changes and to introduce some physical activity into your life.

Obesity is caused by consuming too many calories in comparison with how many calories burned. The more overweight a person becomes the less physical activity they tend to do and so they are not burning off many of those calories that they are consuming. Lack of exercise and bad diet choices are the leading causes of obesity. Genetic and hormonal influences may also contribute to obesity in some people. When a person is inactive they do not burn off the fat consumed and that fat is then stored in the body.

It is essential to change your eating habits if you are to lose that excess body fat and get back to a healthy weight range. Some tips for changing your eating habits are:

* Stop or limit the amount of fast food you eat.
* Don’t skip breakfast but instead have a nutritional breakfast.
* Don’t eat too much right before bed time.
* Put an end to drinking soft drinks.
* Reduce the portions of the food you eat.
* Drink lots of water.

It is also important to make sure that you get the required amount of sleep every night. When you are not getting enough sleep your hormones can change and increase your appetite leading you to consume more calories during the day.

Introducing exercise into your daily routine can be really difficult to do at first if you are extremely obese. You can start out slowly doing something as simple as going for a 20 minute walk each day and gradually increase that time. As you slowly become fit you can walk faster until you are doing at least 30 minutes of brisk walking each day.

When you feel that you can take on more exercise you may consider joining a gym or taking up a sport that involves cardio exercises to help burn off more fat.

When you have made bad diet and lifestyle choices for a long time it can be difficult to make the change for the better and get your life and your health back on track. Eating unhealthy foods and being inactive is really not worth the health conditions that it can cause so make a decision to change your life and be healthy.

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Maybe you are already at an ideal weight and feel really good on a regular basis. If so, you may think there is no need to concern yourself with a healthy eating plan. Who knows, maybe you’re one of those fortunate souls who naturally eats the best foods, and you don’t have to spend any time worrying about what you eat. Perhaps you seem to be able to eat anything you want and have nothing but perfect health to show for it.

Or…

You may be like the vast majority of us and have to actually give some consideration to the foods you eat. While most of us don’t really give all that much thought to a healthy eating plan, we really should. To be fair, you probably do think about the food you eat from time to time. For instance, it’s quite common to eat a lot of junk food and then try to compensate by eating healthier for the rest of the day. It’s good that you’re trying, but this type of behavior doesn’t quite qualify as an eating plan. What you need is a diet that looks at the bigger picture.

The majority of us don’t really know how much sugar we’re taking in, for example. We also tend to eat a lot more fat than we’re aware of. Furthermore, we tend to not think of being on a healthy eating plan at all, unless there is a good reason. Needing to lose weight for an upcoming event (wedding, beach season, class reunion, etc.), or health concerns (diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure) are common reasons.

We only start to think about eating healthier when stuff like this happens. The problem is that it can be too little, too late. It may be possible to repair ill health through proper diet, but once the damage is done, there is no guarantee that it can be fixed. It will also take more effort to make it work. But had we been eating well from the start, there is a very good chance that these ill effects would never have happened. Therefore, it makes a lot more sense to start a healthy eating plan as soon as possible.

If you are in good health now, you could still be at risk if you don’t get your diet in check. There could be environmental factors that contribute to bad health over the long term. A family history of certain diseases could also increase your risk. The funny thing is that some people use these risk factors as an excuse to eat nothing but garbage. They figure they’re going to get these diseases anyway, so that gives them a free ticket to eat whatever they want. That’s sad. The truth is that there are no guarantees that a healthy eating plan will be enough to overcome these risk factors, but it will decrease your risk substantially. So, it only makes sense to eat well. Plus, it is never too late to start.

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