by: Dr. Emil Tompkins, A Northwest Tucson Chiropractor with a passion for health and wellness.
You’ve heard it over and over again. Americans are gaining weight, at an alarming rate. We know that it’s a problem. We may even notice a little more weight that we’re putting on, but does it mean anything? Check out these 5 Staggering Statistics regarding our weight in America.
- 70: 70% of all Americans are overweight. So if you’re sitting in a group of 9 of your friends, 7 of you are likely overweight. That means, your weight is contributing to your health in a negative way. Maybe, some are slightly overweight, some are obese (30% to be specific). Either way, 7 of 10 Americans are not at a healthy weight.
- 30: In kids, right now 30% of all children are overweight as well. That’s kids!! Children are the fastest growing population of overweight people. Their food choices are not healthy and their activity decreases more and more with video games and television
- 66: How’s your breathing? If you are considered obese, you have a 66% increased chance of developing asthma as an adult. A crippling breathing condition that can be life threatening.
- 90: Roughly 90% of people with Type 2 diabetes are overweight. Diabetes has been shown to reduce your life span up to 17 years. The most encouraging but also the most difficult statistic to see is that Type 2 diabetes is almost 100% preventable, and almost 100% curable with specific lifestyle changes.
- 5-10 : I’ve listed this statistic as a range because it has been shown that a decrease of between 5 and 10 percent of your body weight can reduce all these health problems we’ve discussed today. This 5 to 10 percent decrease in weight can lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, decrease blood glucose levels, raise HDL Cholesterol, Reduce waist size, improve survival rates of people with heart disease, improve sleep, improve our quality of life.
Now that we know these important numbers, we must do something about it. You can start by taking some positive steps toward losing that 5-10% of our body weight. But what should I do? You ask. First, find a program free of medication and hormones (unless you like that kind of stuff) that will allow you to lose a significant amount of weight, but gain muscle. Find a program that has some research behind it. Many things make sense, but you need something that can back up the weight loss claims. If you’re able to lose weight while maintaining muscle mass, this is the most effective form of weight loss that will last more than a couple of months. Then you can maintain that weight loss by being sensible when you’re eating. Pay attention to psychological factors when it comes to your weight and you’ll be on your way to improving your health.
In our next post we’ll talk about a program that will do just as I mentioned here.
