A few years ago, especially in tropical Africa, a lot of people thought being a plus-size was a blessing and a testimony of living in opulence. As a matter of fact, our traditional lifestyle was designed to offer more of everything (including food) to a “big person” since they are perceived to be a wealthy class of the people. Slim people were thought to be unfortunate and so were constantly pressured to amass body weight by eating more. Newly married people who were initially slim and athletic suddenly gained plenty of body weight which they often show off and brandish as a comfortable lifestyle. Poor dieting and lesser exercise activities were discovered to be the top reasons for the constant weight gain amongst many people.
In no time, the medical disadvantage of being overweight and obese crept up with our population. Our hospitals became overcrowded with cases of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and cancers of varying degrees, renal disorders, and cardiovascular diseases too. Although weight gain is not the sole cause of these health problems, they play a major role in their causation. Our national productivity declined too because people are no longer as active as they used to be and we spent a large chunk of our income on medicals to continue to stay healthy. In turn, our life expectancy declined, we soon became a grossly unhealthy nation.
Thank goodness for medical experts who started promoting weight loss campaigns, people are now becoming very aware of the dangers of uncontrolled weight gain. Interestingly too, a lot of the people jumped on the bandwagon of weight loss and started dieting and working out. Let it be known that you do not necessarily have to be slim or skinny to be considered healthy. What passes for an ideal weight varies for everyone, to put simply everyone is different and you can have a bit of weight on you and still be considered healthy in weight.
If you are one of the people who care about their health and body image and have been trying so hard to shed some fat off, a few of these Top 10 Slimming Questions may have popped in your head. I have put together a few answers to some of your questions enjoy……
Top 10 Slimming Questions
1. Is there any miraculous way to lose excess Body Weight Without Dieting?
Probably! You can lose body fat via a medical procedure called Liposuction, which is costly, very painful, and has mixed results. You may also be offered slimming pills to speed up your body’s metabolic rate and dampen your appetite to reduce fat absorption. This is highly not recommended as a course of action as most slimming pills could be addictive and have so many dangerous side effects.
Personally, I really don’t know any fool proof, safe, inexpensive, miracle way to lose excess body weight other than Dieting. Dieting does not necessarily mean starvation or deprivation of food. There are a lot of fad diets on the internet today courtesy of quacks and the “get rich gangs”. If you employ any of their slimming diets, you are at risk of causing yourself a far more devastating health complications, emotional distress and frustration, or even losing your hard-earned money. The right medical professionals to consult for your weight issues are the nutritionist-dietitians. They are the only legal and registered professionals who are trained specifically to use the science of food and nutrition and their interaction with the body’s bio-system to bring about health and wellness.
A nutritionist-dietitian will give you medically substantiated facts and evidence-based facts about your food and nutrition.
2. How Often Can I safely Lose Excess Weight?
There are researches that have supported that people who lose excess body weight too quickly are more likely to regain them back. Nonetheless, in the first week or two of your weight loss regimen, you will notice some losses in weight which are body fluid and glycogen (a stored form of carbohydrate in the body) due to the decrease in overall carbohydrate consumed. After this period, weight loss will no longer include the glycogen factor but body fat. Therefore, if you need to lose 10kg of excess weight, in theory you could safely lose all in eight weeks. This is probably the minimum time you should allow.
Although, this is the broad theory of what the average person can do, there are many other variables that can determine the pace of a planned and healthy weight loss. I will explain a few below.
**How much Overweight you are, and what your target is: Frankly speaking, the more overweight you are at the start of your slimming plan, the easier it will be for you to lose weight steadily at 1½Kg a week. Hence, as a guide, the less weight you want to lose, the slower it will probably come off. The moral here is that you don’t set your target weight unrealistically low or too high.
**Your body shape, height and age: if you have most of your surplus weight around your tummy and waist, you will probably find the Kilos easier to lose than a person with his or her excess weight around the hips and thighs.
Young people are also more likely to lose weight than older people following a similar diet. This is because our entire body activities (metabolic rate), whether internal or external slows down with age. Therefore, an older person should be contented with a slower weight loss.
Some researchers have established too that taller people often find out that the excess weight comes off quite easily than short people. The reason for this is that short people eats fewer foods to maintain their body’s demand for energy than taller people. On a similar diet, the taller person will almost utilize all the energy without any remainder.
**Activity level: A regular exerciser will lose weight more quickly than the sedentary counterpart. It has been proven over and over again that exercise increases metabolic rate and tones up muscles. In fact, a good number of people needn’t lose weight but muscle toning to give them that perfect frame of their dream.
Phew! So much writing already. Why not join me on my next post for the concluding part of this topic. See you.
© Idowu Olawale M
Noble Prestige Nutritionals
Tel/Whatsapp: 08158777524
Email: id.olawalemichael@gmail.com
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