Obesity has been actively argued as being derived from poor diet and then others state it is mostly caused by genetics and a persons DNA can make them much more likely to have obesity. Regardless which school of thought you choose to believe in, obesity will cause undue stress on the body everywhere from the circulatory system to the skeletal system. If left unchecked, obesity will cause weakness, breakdown, cardiac arrest and death.
Obesity is defined as an unhealthy increase in body weight. This increase in body weight can be due to stress, poor eating habits, lack in activity or fitness, etc. This extra body weight places added stress to the heart and circulatory system as it must not only work to feed and fuel more cells, but it must also work harder as the body is pushed harder to carry this additional weight.
Depending on how obese one is can really multiply this cardiovascular stress. According to a recent Oprah show obesity is defined as more than 35 inches at the waste for men and 30 for women. If you are over this measurement at your waste you are at greater risk of developing COPD, heart disease, cholesterol driven coronary blockages, even kidney and renal failure.
On a recent show on TLC they showed the short life of a 750 pound morbidly obese man named John Keitz. The hour long episode chronicled the last few years of his life and the toll that morbid obesity can take on ones body. He lived to be 39 years old and died from an infection that grew out of his body and its weakened condition after years of this uncontrolled morbid obesity. His body had basically given up.
He did, however embark on a rehabilitation program after having been bed ridden for 7 years, which showed good intentions and was a good start. Its just the stress and damage caused by being morbidly obese for so long had already greatly weakened his body and it was just a matter of time. How can this happen? How does one become obese or morbidly obese? Is it by personal choice and eating habits or is it solely genetic?
Is it their fault or is it genetics. It is probably a combination of the two as there are some people that are naturally obese and there are those that are naturally skinny or even anorexic. Regardless, diet and exercise (especially aerobic exercise) does play a major role. John Dietz loved fried chicken, potato chips and junk food. He continued to eat these items even after starting his rehabilitation program at the nursing home or facility he was taken to.
Its hard to say that if he had replaced that with health food that he would not have been obese, but he probably would have been less obese and even mobile. His extreme weight caused his legs to literally unbuckle or give out. People with lesser cases of obesity may not have their legs giving out, but they will have similar health problems developing from the extra weight. Skeletal problems like bad hips, deformed and malformed bones, bad joints, necessary hip and knee replacements, and other injuries associated with obesity, along with heart and even breathing difficulties and problems.
There are several things that work for treating obesity, but it is basically a change of lifestyle that is needed to make a permanent change to a healthier body. Yes, diet does play a major role. A healthy diet consisting of the major food groups and high in protein and low in carbohydrates like the South Beach Diet is very helpful in weight loss. The South Beach Diet is a realistic diet and can be achieved. Do not pay attention to unrealistic diet ads like lose 20 pounds in one week. This is impossible and if it were it would be a crash diet and very unhealthy or even risky (just like morbid obesity, crash diets can also cause serious health problems).
For a good idea of what it takes to lose weight for all kinds of people and all kinds of body shapes and ages watch the TV show The Greatest Loser. It shows two groups of B rated stars trying to see which can lose more weight and features a workout guru, psychologist and renowned doctor. There are people of all sorts and sizes on this show and one is bound to be similar in stature and composition to you. You can learn a lot about dieting, fitness, and even trials, tribulations and hardships they go through.
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