Are you one of the millions of people who is planning to go on a weight reducing diet soon after New Years eve party? Are you excessively infatuated with being thin?
Are you a retired, non-smoking, healthy man who is wondering: Am I going to live long enough to enjoy my retirement?
Read on to see who is saying what in the medical journals!
Losing Weight An Ill-Fated New Years Resolution:
It is a well known fact that come January, within few days to few months, most people will give up on their New Years resolution to lose weight. Why? Because losing weight and sustaining the loss is a difficult task. This leads to guilt and self-hatred.
An Editorial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on January 1st, 1998 estimates that at any given time, 15 to 35 per cent of Americans are trying to lose weight. They spend about $30 to $50 billion yearly on diet clubs, special foods and over-the-counter remedies. These remedies are not always harmless.
Why do people want to lose weight? First, there is enormous social pressure to look thin. Second, being overweight has some health risks: heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a variety of other problems.
Why is it that some people cannot lose weight? The old view is that if intake of calories is more than expenditure then the weight goes up. The new view is that there is a fairly stable set point for a persons weight that is resistant over short periods to either gain or loss, but that may move with age.
This set point can be changed with extreme measures like diet and exercise. But when this measures are discontinued then the body weight returns to its original level. Heredity also plays a significant role.
So, what is the best approach to weight control and staying healthy?
Prevention!
Encouraging lifelong, regular exercise in children may well have the greatest effect in terms of preventing obesity, as well as numerous other benefits, say the authors. This should be combined with healthy eating habits.
What about those who are already overweight? In authors views, overweight people should be advised to lose weight if only it would be required to improve their health or if they ask for help.
Want to live longer after retirement?
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says that, Encouraging elderly people to walk may benefit their health.
Among the 707 men included in this study, the average distance walked was about 2.9 km (1.8 miles) per day. These men had 12 years of follow-up.
Results? Those who walked less than 1.6 km. (1 mile) per day, the death rate was 43.1 per 100 men. For those who walked more than 3.2 km (2 miles) per day the death rate was more than halved (21.5 per 100). Age had negligible effect on the out come. Time for another New Years resolution?
Wait a minute! Consult your doctor before you go wild!
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