Health and Fitness
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It is a difficult thing to deny that being overweight is detrimental to health in several areas, despite what some people may believe.
Of course, it really does depend on the amount of excess weight that a person is carrying around with them and the nature of that weight as to how it will or will not affect their health.
We will take a look at why it could be important to you to learn some quick weight loss tips to reduce your weight if necessary. There are three main areas that apply to the scope of this article that apply to excess weight according to a person's Body Mass Index (BMI). These are:
- Excess fat
- Excess water retention
- Excess Highly developed muscle
These three main causes of a higher BMI than is considered normal for an average person are listed in the order of importance that they need to be rectified. We'll look at these in reverse order.
Highly Developed Muscle
This is not actually a problem as such, but the product of extreme bodybuilding and the direct result of deliberate fitness training and dieting to achieve greater muscle mass and definition, usually for the purposes of entering bodybuilding competitions. Huge muscles are developed by working out at grossly elevated rates compared with the average person who trains regularly and are the result of working with very heavy weights and low repetitions.
The muscle definition, or "cut" look is achieved by eating an effective diet very low in carbohydrates and very high in protein. The body is forced to use up almost its entire store of fat to create the appearance of lean muscle which is required by competition conventions.
The reason a bodybuilder will produce an extraordinarily high BMI is because muscle tissue weighs much more than fat by volume. A highly muscled person can tip the scales at a relatively heavy weight for their height and thereby generate a BMI high enough to be considered obese, while not in actuality being what is considered overweight at all.
This is one of the major failings of the Body Mass Index as it does not take into account the weight of muscle mass.
Water Retention
This is also known by its proper name of Edema and is a condition where the body retains fluids that should normally be eliminated via the normal body processes. Water is stored in body cavities and in the circulatory system as well as in layers of the epidermis. There are several treatments available which are outside the scope of this article.
The obvious problem with Edema is that it raises the body weight to provide a higher than normal BMI and that makes people worried that they are overweight. The fact is that they are not overweight in the sense that the extra fluid is dangerous to their health, although the condition should be attended to, especially in severe cases.
Again, it can give a false BMI reading and is another failing of this method of assessing whether a person is overweight or obese.
Fat Storage
It is the amount of fat that the body stores that is the prime concern for people who are shown by their BMI readings as being overweight or obese.
This is a condition that must be rectified if the person wants to enjoy good health in the long term. This is because there are a number of side effects to having too much fat stored around the body that can in some cases seriously affect health.
Conditions such as diabetes are common in overweight and obese patients with high levels of fat stored in the body, but even the location of that stored fat can make a big difference to what the patient can look forward to in terms of deteriorating health if it is not rectified.
In general terms, there are two main body shapes for overweight people, which are termed the "pear shape" and the apple shape" and can be described simply as:
Pear shaped people tend to store most of the fat around the hips, buttocks and thighs and this is seen as the least problematic form of fat storage although it is linked with Type 2 Diabetes.
Apple shaped people tend to store most of the fat around their abdomen and this is called visceral fat, or "belly fat". This kind of fat has been shown in a number of trials to be more dangerous especially long term as it is linked with the formation of several types of cancer and is more likely to lead to Type 1 Diabetes.
How to Lose Weight Naturally
The best way to go about losing weight is through the natural methods of eating a sensible, low calorie, portion controlled diet meal delivery diet such as Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig or Medifast for example and combining it with plenty of daily exercise. It helps to drink plenty of plain water and avoid any flavored drinks or soda of any kind.
The best ways to go about using these methods will be described in related articles.
Suffice it to say that as long as the cause of you being overweight is excess body fat, then you need to take action to reduce it without resorting to drastic means such as crash diets, pills or surgery as these come with health risks and the whole idea of this is to improve your health, not place it in any danger!
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