THE OBESITY AND WEIGHT LOSS By Dr. Dipan Samanta

I may talk about different topics but talking about weight loss is significant because most of the diseases, uncomfortable pain, etc can occur from obesity. Obesity can cause so many problems in an obese person from pain in the hand to cardiovascular disease. So, it is very clear that decreasing the weight for a obese person may give him/her a solution to thousands of problems in the body. Practically, you do not have to think about each and individual problem, rather you can solve thousands of problems at once.

Who Is Obese?

Obesity is measured by the Basal Metabolic Index. Now, you can see fatty person or well fed healthy person. They may not be obese. Being healthy is desirable while it is hazardous to be a obese person. Likewise, being malnutrition or poorly fed is hazardous again. Basically, there is a spectrum within which you should be present. 

To be called as obese, Basal Metabolic Index (BMI) should be calculated for that person. It is calculated as follows:

The result that will be obtained has to be matched with this table

If the result is 30 or more then only you can say the given person is obese and must take active measures. Below 30 and up to 25 is overweight. This category of persons have to be careful with their health.

What Causes Obesity?

1. Gene: Our gene plays the most important part. Our genes can be strongly linked to obesity. Heredity can also play a good role. But, this is not a hard and fast rule. Presence of Obese genetic component can make the individual susceptible to obesity.

2. Lifestyle: One thing you can easily notice, obesity increases and increases with lifestyle enhancement. Lifestyle does not include only foods but also our activities, our job type (sitting in a chair for long). Today we have to do much less work in order to satisfy ourselves. For example, we do not have to walk a long way, rather we have cars. We have a micro-oven which can cook food without much interference.

3. Foods: Oily and spicy foods specially deep fried foods and junk processed foods has acquired our menu mostly. Many of them contain trans fatty acid and cholesterol at high levels. Oily and spicy foods can also increase Blood Pressure. Read 5 Foods That May Give You High Blood Pressure.

4. Insulin Resistance: Intake of simple sugars like fructose may promote insulin resistance. Insulin makes the food ready to be used by the cells for energy derivation. But if insulin resistance occurs, these foods get stored and can’t be used by the cells. These stored foods become stored fat and we become fatty. I also suggest you read The relation between Diabetes and Fats.

5. Leptin Resistance: Leptin is a hormone that is released by fat cells. If fat cells are high in our body, the amount of leptin produced will be high. This high leptin should tell the brain not to eat more. But in obese people, although leptin is high, it is not communicating with the brain due to the fact that leptin may not cross the Blood-Brain-Barrier. So, it can convey to the brain the present situation. The brain does not direct to stop eating leading to obesity. This condition is known as leptin resistance.

6. Economy: This may sound awkward to you, but it is true. With the growing economy, technology and food availability, we have enough money to buy food, in fact, more than required. We have foods available in the market which can give you high calorie. These kinds of foods mostly contribute to obesity. Just compare the kids of the 1960s and now. You can understand that the economy was one of the important factors from the level of a society to the level of an individual family.

So, if you know the causes, it is very easy to understand what to do next. Obviously there are some of the causes written above about which you cannot do anything. Like, genes are a constitutional problem. So, you cannot change it but if your family members are obese (not all but at least few), you are more likely to get obese. What you need to do is to control your lifestyle and be cautious from every way possible.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO OBESITY

From the above reasons, it is clear that having an overall healthy lifestyle may be beneficial to you. The ultimate problem is what you should actually do to manage or prevent obesity. First of all, individual management is preferred. Not all the points are applicable in every one. According to your obesity (more or less), affordability, determination level, the management plan should be made. 

For a lazy person, if you give him/her some hard exercises, he/she is never going to do and ultimately obesity is never going to be managed. 

Without wasting your time, I want to tell you about some exercises which you can easily do and yes, they are effective.

I. SIMPLE DAILY EXERCISES THAT YOU CAN DO WITHOUT HASSLE

1. Spot Jogging for 15-30 minutes as per your work burden. Obviously, doing it for almost 30 minutes daily can give you better result
2. Flat Sit-Ups: Lie down on a floor/bed, then, try to rise up the upper part of the body while keeping the lower portion with the bed/floor. Do this for a minimum 20 times a day. Try to increase it to 100 times a day. This may give you some abdominal muscle pain for the first few days.
3. Simple Inhaling and Forceful and Fast Exhaling: Doing this for 30 minutes everyday can help to lose belly fat.
4. Push Ups: You can do this but this will help you to lose weight a lot because most of the pressure goes to the hand, biceps, triceps, shoulder joint. In this blog, we are not discussing building a muscular body rather we are discussing how to lose weight.
5. Simply Raise your Legs: May be alternatively or both, but, continue for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes, try to keep the leg high up for seconds like 30 seconds. This will burn belly fat, help you to lose your weight
6. Try to take fewer vehicles while going somewhere. If time and work permits you, always try not to take the bus, train, etc, rather walk. Walk fast for faster metabolism.
7. Voluntarily press your belly, that is, depress your abdomen (not with your hand) and then again relax. You can do this for 15-20 minutes or you may also do in between your work, the whole day.
8. Simply you can ride a bicycle while lying on the bed or floor. That means, drive a bicycle with legs, while lying on the bed. Lie on the bed and keep one leg little spread and one leg close to the chest. Now move the farther one closer to the chest and simultaneously move closer one to far from you. Do this alternatively for 20-40 minutes. 

II. FOODS/DRINKS THAT INCREASES YOUR METABOLISM AND DECREASES YOUR WEIGHT

1. Water: Very simple. If you add water to a chemical process it will react or go forward quickly. So, in our body, the chemical process of using stored energy can be made quicker by adding water to our body. So, drink water, do not go thirsty. When you feel thirsty, that means, you are mildly dehydrated and your metabolism is already slower. So, do not give it a chance to make it slower. As a preventive method, drink water from time to time.
2. Minerals: Iron, zinc, selenium rich foods. Because if these minerals are deficient, your thyroid gland cannot make sufficient hormones which will make your metabolism again slower. Fortified cereal, lean meat can be a good source of minerals.
3. Chili: It contains a chemical known as capsaicin which can increase your metabolism. So, eat chili within your limit.
4. Ginger Tea: A study shows that dissolving 2 grams of ginger powder in hot water and drinking it can burn 43 more calories than drinking water alone. Again, tea is also found to increase the metabolism. We recommend you drink ginger tea. A great combination with some healthy snacks during the evening.
5. There are many foods which can increase metabolism. Like green vegetables. In most Weight Loss Tips, you can find oatmeal’s, fiber rich foods, protein rich foods are advised. If you add these foods, the portion of fatty foods will decrease, and you will not gain weight. So, this is a good idea to increase lentils, broccoli, and green leafy vegetables which also contain minerals, increasing your BMR. 

III. Other Passive Tips To Lose Your Weight In Your Busy Schedule

1. If You are IT professionals, doctors or have to do desk jobs, try to walk or move your body/exercise time to time, standing at the same place
2. Join some Health Forum. We recommend you to join MedBlog18’s Health Forum. But Why Ours? Because daily,some tips are posted there. It will be easier for you to choose and maintain those tips passively. You can follow this link
3. Like My Facebook page “MedBlog18”. Search with that name on facebook and like it. You will get daily tips about health.
4. You should also know Why You get Obese? Read This
5. You should also have an idea how blood pressure, lifestyle and foods are interrelated? Read This to have some idea.

Nutrition Bangla Author

nutritionbangla.com