You’re Obese, Can’t Lose Weight, And Fat Is Killing You

Being born in a family of cooks that used lard and fatback (cut of meat from a domestic pig which when rendered will make high quality lard) everyday in their meal preparation, meant that from the beginning of my existence I was given a ticket to learn bad eating habits and meal preparation. I’m not saying that my family had a mission to assist everyone to an early grave, but ignorance in healthy eating didn’t help with life longevity either. Eating this way was the norm not only in my family, but throughout the south.

Let’s Talk About Fat

We all know what it looks like to be overweight, but inside your body a pound of human fat looks something slimy like this…

Rather disgusting isn’t it?

Being overweight, obese or in other words fat has a lot more negative effects on your health than just having an unfit appearance. Having excess fat on your body can kill you.

What?!

Yes, my friend, being fat can cause you to prematurely drop dead!

I don’t know about you, but THAT is a terrifying thought to me! I can’t think of any food that is worth dying over. I don’t want to die young if I can at all help it. And yes, I am still young at 52.

In 2014, 39 percent of adults (38% of men and 40% of women) were overweight. Do you know how many adults make up 39 percent of the population? Over 600 million adults are obese. 600 million!!!

It’s not just adults who are obese. There are 42 million children under the age of 5 that are also overweight or obese.

Obesity is preventable.

My Heart, Your Heart

Heart disease is the number one killer in my family line. As a statistic, women who have a heart attack usually die. Actually, women are 26 percent more likely to die of a heart attack than men. One in every four deaths in women is due to heart disease.

Heart disease kills approximately one woman every minute!

Why?

There are several reasons that women die from heart attacks more often than men:

• The pain, pressure and discomfort of a heart attack is not always severe in women.
• Some women do not have chest pain during a heart attack.
• Women have heart attacks more often when resting or asleep.
• Women are always in their head and mental stress and/or depression are huge factors contributing to heart attacks in women.
• Women downplay their heart attack symptoms.
• Women seek medical help after they have already suffered heart damage.
• Approximately 64 percent of women who die suddenly because of heart disease have absolutely no previous symptoms.
• Women are less likely than men to receive appropriate treatment after a heart attack.
• Ninety percent of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease.

What Is Fat Doing To Your Health?

Every major system in your body feels the stress of excess weight. The heart is the most obvious victim of obesity. The added weight prevents as much physical activity and as cholesterol builds, blood pressure rises, and arteries get clogged. All the fat leads to some pretty awful health conditions or diseases:

• Type 2 Diabetes (affects the insulin hormone)
• Sleep Apnea & Other Sleeping Disorders
• Cancer (endometrial, breast, colon) – Obesity is a problem in 15-20 percent of total cancer-related mortality
• Reproductive Problems
• Osteoarthritis (additional weight on your fragile bones) and other types of Arthritis
• Gallstones
• Breathing Problems
• Blood loses its ability to clot which leads to Strokes
• High Blood Pressure
• Clogged Arteries
• Strokes (plaque builds up in the arteries, eventually ruptures, creates a clot which blocks the blood flow and oxygen to your brain, and then you have a stroke.
• High Cholesterol
• Coronary Heart Disease
• Angina
• Heart Attack

Are you the type of person who thought, “I have to die of something eventually” or did that list scare you a bit? If you had the former thought, you might as well just quit reading because you are not that interested in becoming healthy.

Let me just add something to the last one on the list, heart attack. Women who are overweight have higher levels of male hormones. The hormones not only cause acne, but also male pattern balding and some excess facial hair. There’s one more thing that too many male hormones do in a woman’s body – the presence of the extra male hormones increases a woman’s risk of heart disease.

The hormone imbalances caused by being overweight or obese often fuel tumor growth. There are higher levels of oestrogen and insulin as well as blood glucose which all aid in cancer growth.

By losing weight and the fat that surrounds all your organs, you can greatly cut your risk of very serious health problems.

How Fat And Obese Are You?

You look in the mirror and like me, you see a glob of fat in places you don’t want to see it. How do you measure your obesity?

Body Mass Index!

Body mass index is the measurement used to calculate if you are underweight, a healthy weight, overweight or obese for your height.

Mom, Alyssa and everyone else like them, keep reading after this next sentence because you do NOT have to know math in order to figure out your BMI.

Body mass index (BMI) is calculated as your weight (in kilograms) over your height squared (in centimeters).

Example of the BMI math:

1. Multiply the weight in pounds by 0.45 (the metric conversion factor)
   • Example: 180 X 0.45 = 81.00 kg
2. Multiply the height in inches by 0.025 (the metric conversion factor)
   • Example: 68 X 0.025 = 1.7 m
3. Square the answer from step 2
   • Example: 1.7 X 1.7 = 2.89
4. Divide the answer from step 1 by the answer from step 3
   • Example: 81.00 : 2.89 = 28.02768166

The BMI (Body Mass Index) for a person who is 5’8″ and weighs 180 lbs is 28.027 and that is not within the healthy BMI range.

Having a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered to be good and indicates you are at a healthy weight. Everything above it sets you up to have all those diseases I mentioned earlier – Type 2 Diabetes, Cancer (a BMI between 25 and 30), Heart Disease.

*Exception: If you are extremely muscular, you can not go by the BMI chart. If you fall into this category and are a man, please feel free to send me your extremely muscular photo. 😉

Now take a second to calculate your BMI. Find your height and weight. Start where your height and weight intersect and go up to the GREEN numbers in the top row. The top numbers in the GREEN row is the BMI calculations. Does your BMI land between 18.5 and 24.9?

No?

Then you know what you need to do.

It’s never too late to lose weight.

How To Lose Weight And Fat

The cold hard facts are now out in the open.

Fat causes disease and death.

You just calculated your BMI (Body Mass Index) and discovered your BMI puts you in the obese category.

You’ve tried to lose weight a billion different ways and it just won’t come off. Let’s talk about that for a minute.

On Wednesday, June 3, 2015, at 1:39 p.m. EST, on Facebook I posted the following with a picture of a 5 lb. glob of fat plopped on a plate:

I’ve lost 3 Plate Fulls!!!

I DO NOT get hungry
I DO NOT have cravings
I DO NOT eat fake food

I’m getting more healthy as each day passes. Who would have thought it possible at 52 while going through menopause when the body seems to enjoy packing weight on below the belly button! Not anymore!

Interested in getting healthier and losing fat that just seems to never come off? Comment below to learn how!

SHARE with your family and friends to help them get healthier too!

I actually want to lose more weight for several reasons:

• I hate the appearance of the puff of fat below my belly button.
• I do not want to set myself up for preventable health problems or add to the likelihood of getting the diseases.
• I will be more fit and energetic.

Would you like to lose 8-15 lbs. in 8 days?

I can help you!

Comment on this post below or shoot me a message on Facebook and I will tell you how I lost the weight and am continuing to lose weight. It’s healthy, natural and you eat real food (not packaged stuff). 🙂

Aging And Fat

I tried to leap a hedge, a very low hedge, the other day and I landed in the bush. At first I thought I had just misjudged the distance and height. Then I thought it might have been my jeans that kept me from lifting my leg as high as I thought I had lifted it. So I went back to the hedge and tried to jump over it again. Thankfully, I didn’t land in the bush again, but I realized exactly why I had missed the first time.

It required MUCH more energy and effort because I am older, overweight, and not in a very fit shape.

A sedentary lifestyle, menopause, aging, and diets high in calories increase the risk of obesity which in turn sets you up for disease and health problems.

I know that a lot of people look at the pictures I post of myself and think that I don’t look “fat” and definitely not “obese,” but according to the BMI I AM fat and obese. So tomorrow I am going to tell you a private story about me and my fat. After that I guess it won’t be so private anymore, but it may help someone who reads my writing. My life isn’t perfect y’all and neither is my appearance.

Your homework before tomorrow’s post is to get your weight, height, find your BMI and decide if you want to lose your fat to prevent unnecessary health problems that will shorten your life.

Since my daughter, Alyssa, moved rather far away, I no longer get enough hugs, so I’m giving you all a virtual hug today along with my wish for you to have healthy weight loss NOW if you are obese.

{{{hugsss}}}