Weight Loss -
Some Inportant
Information
By: Jon Rhodes
Being overweight is a common condition,
especially where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are
sedentary. As much as 64% of the United States adult population
is considered either overweight or obese, and this percentage
has increased over the last four decades.
Excess weight has reached epidemic proportions globally, with
more than 1 billion adults being either overweight or obese.
Increases have been observed across all age groups.
Being overweight is generally caused by the intake of more
calories (by eating) than are expended by the body (by exercise
and everyday living). Factors which may contribute to this
imbalance include:
• Limited physical exercise and sedentary lifestyle
• Overeating
• Poor nutrition
• Genetic predisposition
• Hormonal imbalances (e.g. hypothyroidism)
• Metabolic disorders, which could be caused by repeated
attempts to lose weight by weight cycling,
• Eating disorders (such as binge eating)
• Alcoholism
• Stress
• Insufficient or poor-quality sleep
Hypnosis when used to help most of these problems, can have the
knock on effect of permanent weight loss.
Therapeutic weight loss, in individuals who are overweight or
obese, can decrease the likelihood of developing diseases such
as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke,
osteoarthritis, and certain types of cancer.
Weight loss occurs when an individual is in a state of negative
energy balance. When the human body is spending more energy in
work and heat than it is gaining from food or other nutritional
supplements, it will use stored reserves of fat or muscle.
Although weight loss may involve loss of fat, muscle or fluid,
weight loss for the purposes of maintaining health should aim
to lose fat while conserving muscle and fluid.
While the negative health outcomes associated with obesity are
accepted within the medical community, the health implications
of the overweight category are more controversial. The
generally accepted view is that being overweight causes similar
health problems as obesity, just to a lesser degree. Adams et
al. estimated that the risk of death increases by 20 to 40
percent among overweight persons. The Framingham Heart Study
found that being overweight at age 40years reduced your life
expectancy by three years.
Being overweight has been identified as a cause of cancer, and
is projected to overtake smoking as the primary cause of cancer
in developed countries as cases of cancer linked to smoking
dwindle.
Psychological well-being is also at risk in the overweight
individual. Discrimination against fat persons is common
socially and legally. This may affect their ability to find a
partner or obtain employment.
Despite the widespread availability of nutritional information
in schools, doctors' offices, and on product packaging, it is
evident that overeating remains a substantial problem. In the
period of 1971-2000, obesity rates in the United States
increased from 14.5% to 30.9%.
During the same time period, an increase occurred in the
average amount of calories consumed. For women, the average
increase was 335 calories per day (1542 calories in 1971 and
1877 calories in 2004), for men the average increase was 168
calories per day (2450 calories in 1971 and 2618 calories in
2004). Most of these extra calories came from an increase in
carbohydrate consumption rather than an increase in fat
consumption.
The primary sources of these extra carbohydrates are sweetened
drinks, which now accounts for almost 25 percent of daily
calories in young adults. Dietary trends have changed with
reliance on energy-dense fast-food meals tripling between 1977
and 1995, and calorie intake from fast food quadrupling over
the same period. In the early 1980s in the US, regulations were
lifted that limited the advertising of sweets and fast food to
children. The advertisements of these products being directed
at children has therefore increased. Agricultural policy and
techniques in the United States and Europe have led to lower
food prices.
In the United States, subsidization of corn, soy,
wheat, and rice through the U.S. farm bill has made the main
sources of processed food relatively cheap compared to fruits
and vegetables.
There is a common misconception that obese people eat little
and still gain weight due to a low metabolism. There is however
no support for this idea. What has been found however is that
obese people underreport how much food they consume to a
greater extent then those people of a normal weight.
It is not uncommon for people who are already at a medically
healthy weight to intentionally lose weight. In some cases it
is with the goal of improving athletic performance or to meet
weight classifications in a sport. In other cases, the goal is
to attain a more attractively shaped body. Being underweight is
associated with health risks such as difficulty fighting off
infection, osteoporosis, decreased muscle strength, trouble
regulating body temperature and even increased risk of
death.
A crash diet is where a person willfully restricts themselves
of all nourishment (except water) for more than 12 hours. The
desired result is to have the body burn fat for energy with the
goal of losing a significant amount of weight in a short time.
Crash dieting is not the same as flexible intermittent fasting,
where dieters fast for 2 days each week and calories are
cycled. Generally the weight lost in a crash diet returns when
normal eating resumes. It is far healthier and more successful
in the long run to make many small permanent changes to your
lifestyle that all contribute towards of the goal of achieving
a natural healthy weight. Hypnosis can help you make these
permanent changes which will have the effect of permanent
weight loss, but it cannot magically remove the weight for
you!
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