More than two-thirds of American are overweight or obese. Two-thirds of children in the U. S. are obese. These epic proportions are increasing with as estimate of 34 % of adults and 15-20% of children and adolescents in the United States are obese. This staggering number has increased 20% over the past year while people were forced to stay home due to COVID19.
One problem in America is sedentary lifestyle and another is the acceptance of being overweight or obese, either by oneself or socially. This is a serious problem because obesity is associated with the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some types of cancer. Obesity has also been linked to poor mental health outcomes and reduced quality of life.
Obesity is considered a chronic disease according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and affect 42.8% of middle-aged adults. Several other diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, certain cancers, and joint disease. Obese people are also more likely to get COVID19 and suffer serious illness and or death.
The good news is regardless of your age or whether you are obese, just need to lose a few pounds or want to improve your health there are things that you can do to achieve your goals. The most important thing is to stop eating unhealthy foods and large amounts of food. By cutting junk foods and processed foods including fast foods, fried foods, sugary snacks, donuts, pastries, cakes, candy and replacing them with healthy foods found in nature in their natural state you can easily lose weight and feel great.
Daily exercise is a great way to burn off the calories that you eat so they do not get stored as fat. Being sedentary puts you at a greater risk for obesity. Planning to exercise every day will keep you from gaining weight and help you lose those unwanted pounds if you do not take in more calories than you burn. Cardiovascular exercise is great for the heart, circulation, lowers blood pressure, improves brain function, decreases stress, decreases joint stiffness. Strength training and weightlifting help build muscles, protects bone health, develops better muscle mechanics, decreases body fat, decreases risk of injury, and will give you lean muscle mass.
One thing that is equal for everyone is the number of hours in the day and how they are spent. By making time to exercise and eat healthy you can get into great shape, increase your energy, and have more time and energy achieve all the goals in your life.
Love and best wishes,
Tracy