Ten Benefits of Following a Low-Calorie Diet
In This Chapter
� Reaping the physical rewards of a low-calorie lifestyle
� Staying healthier and extending your life
The big payback for following a low-calorie diet and losing weight comes from the many ways you’ll improve your health and your overall quality of life as you lose weight. These benefits, which I cover in this chapter, can help reduce your risk of developing medical problems now and in the future, and you may even live longer simply because you’ve chosen to live better.
Looking Good, Feeling Great
I sometimes grow impatient when I read advice suggesting that overweight people need to be comfortable with themselves at any size. I agree with the advice, but it’s often militant, not always realistic, and sometimes gives the wrong message. Yes, you must love and care about yourself. Yes, you’re a worthwhile person at any size. But if you’re not physically and mentally comfortable being overweight, then it doesn’t make sense to stay that way. Losing weight may not solve all your problems, but most people I know who have lost weight in the past say they feel better about themselves when they’re thinner. Hundreds of people I’ve spoken with say they want to lose weight to look better and improve the quality of their lifestyles as well as their health. Very few say it’s for the sake of their health alone.
You can be “fat and fit,” especially if you get plenty of exercise. However, if you’re still extremely unhappy when you look in the mirror, then you’re car- rying around a lot of psychological weight in addition to extra body weight. Wanting to look good is never a negative unless you have unrealistic ideas about how much you want to weigh or what your life is going to be like after you lose weight. If your weight-loss goals are unrealistic, the result could be a painful, lifelong struggle. But if all you want is to get to a comfortable weight
so you can feel better about yourself, then make it your goal. (Chapter 4 has more info on setting realistic goals.)
Looking good is a legitimate benefit of weight loss when it comes to improved self-esteem and a positive body image. A trickle-down effect is working here: When you feel good about yourself, you’re more likely to take care of your health because you know you’re worth it. How do I know this? Well, not many scientific studies have been conducted on the power of positive thinking, but experts do know that poor body image is associated with low self-esteem and low self-esteem is associated with unhealthy behaviors such as abusing alcohol and drugs, avoiding professional help, and overeating.
Boosting Your Energy
The more extra weight you carry on your body, the more energy you use up performing even the simplest tasks. If, for instance, you’re 40 pounds out of your healthy weight range, you may as well be wearing a 40-pound backpack. If you can identify with this example, you know that everyday activities, such as walking down the street or doing housework, could be much easier if you took off that backpack.
Although many people assume that energy levels naturally decline as you age, fitness studies have shown that the better you control your body fat, build up your endurance, and develop muscle over the years, the less of a decline you’ll see. That’s why, even though the mere thought of more exer- cise might exhaust you, getting active can give you more energy in the long run. I give you the full scoop on working out and getting active in Chapter 8.
Sleeping Better
According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, more than 12 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a condition that causes people to repeatedly stop breathing for up to a full minute while they sleep. Being overweight is a risk factor for developing sleep apnea and even though the condition is more commonly found in men older than 40, it can affect anyone. (If you want to know all you need to know about sleep apnea and other potential sleeping problems, check out Sleep Disorders For Dummies by Max Hirshkowitz, MD, and Patricia Smith [Wiley].)
If you have apnea, your brain wakes you up with each episode to resume breathing, but your sleep quality suffers as a result of these constant awaken- ings. You may not even know that you have sleep apnea, but you (or your sleeping partner) may recognize some of the symptoms, such as loud snoring and constantly feeling tired throughout the day. Sleep apnea can also cause other medical conditions such as high blood pressure (see “Lowering Your Blood Pressure,” later in this chapter), headaches, and impotency.
Saving Your Back
Losing weight can help reduce the load on your lower back and extremities, which in turn can help reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis and possibly even prevent joint problems. Medical experts also say that being overweight is a cause of osteoarthritis in the hips, knees, and lower back because the extra pressure from excess weight wears away the cartilage that would normally protect these areas. Excess weight in your abdomen puts extra stress on your back muscles. The healthiest solution is to lose weight and work with a physical therapist, or a trainer who is familiar with joint and back problems, to strengthen your abdominal muscles.
Lowering Your Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is the force at which your heart beats to drive blood to your arteries and through your circulatory system. Your blood pressure rises as your heart beats and falls when your heart rests between beats, and that’s what’s being measured when you get a blood pressure reading. When your pressure reads above the normal range, you have high blood pressure.
Often described as “the silent killer,” high blood pressure can cause heart dis- ease, stroke, and kidney failure — all killer diseases. The silent part comes from the fact that you can develop high blood pressure without experiencing any symptoms. So you may have it and not even know it until it leads to a more critical health problem.
As your weight increases, so does your blood pressure. If you’re overweight, just losing a few pounds by eating less and moving more can help prevent high blood pressure. If you already have high blood pressure, losing weight can help bring it back into a normal range.
If you’re overweight, the way to help prevent and lower high blood pressure is to eat less, exercise more, and lose weight. If you’re overweight and take blood pressure–lowering medication, you may be able to reduce your dose or even eliminate the need for medication by losing excess weight.
If you’re curious to know more about dealing with high blood pressure, check out High Blood Pressure For Dummies by Alan L. Rubin, MD (Wiley).
Maintaining a Healthy Heart
Reducing your weight by a mere 10 percent can lower your risk of developing heart disease. Many factors play into the development of heart disease, includ- ing high cholesterol that may be related to your diet, physical inactivity, and being overweight. You can control these factors by eating fewer calories, eating healthier foods, and exercising more. Losing weight can help lower your LDL cholesterol, which is the form of cholesterol responsible for clogged arteries, and raise your HDL cholesterol, which is the form of cholesterol that is beneficial to your heart because it carries excess dietary fat out of your body. (If you want more information about cholesterol, look for Controlling Cholesterol For Dummies by Carol Ann Rinzler and Martin W. Graf, MD [Wiley].)
Even with normal cholesterol levels, you may be at risk of developing heart disease if you’re one of 55 million people with metabolic syndrome, also known as Syndrome X. This syndrome isn’t a disease in and of itself, but rather a col- lection of risk factors. If you have at least three of the following risk factors, you may be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome:
� High blood pressure
� High blood glucose (sugar) levels
� High blood triglyceride (fat) levels
� Low blood levels of protective HDL cholesterol
� Insulin resistance
� A waist circumference greater than 35 inches in women, 40 in men
The best known treatment for slowing down or reversing the risk factors of metabolic syndrome is to lose weight. Research has shown that a diet providing between 1,100 and 1,950 calories a day can reduce cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.
Preventing Diabetes
Overweight people are twice as likely to develop non-insulin dependent dia- betes than people who are at a healthy weight. Another scary fact: About one-fourth of overweight adults older than 45 are prediabetic, a term given to the condition people develop before they get diabetes. Among those people who are prediabetic, almost 95 percent have high cholesterol and more than half have high blood pressure. Scariest fact of all: Approximately 6.5 million people are walking around with undiagnosed diabetes so they’re not even included in the statistics. If you’re one of them, you’re at high risk of developing chronic conditions related to diabetes, such as heart disease and kidney disease.
Cutting calories, balancing your meals, and increasing the amount of exercise you do on a regular basis can reduce your risk of developing diabetes. If you already have diabetes and you’re overweight, losing weight can help control your blood sugar levels and decrease your need for medication. Ask your physician if eating less and exercising more can help you.
If you want more information about diabetes, check out Diabetes For Dummies, 2nd edition, by Alan L. Rubin, MD (Wiley).
Fighting Cancer
In a study of more than 900,000 adults published in the New England Journal of Medicine, being overweight was associated with higher rates of death due to cancer of the esophagus, colon, rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and kidney, and also higher death rates from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma, in both men and women. Heavier men were more likely to die from stomach and prostate cancers; heavier women were more likely to die from cancers of the breast, uterus, cervix, and ovary. From this study, researchers concluded that 14 percent of all deaths from cancer in women and 20 percent of all deaths in men were linked to being overweight and obesity.
Cancer experts list weight loss among their suggestions for preventing cancer because they believe that being overweight and inactive produces changes in the body that encourage cancer cells to thrive and grow. But cancerous conditions also develop in people who aren’t overweight, so medical experts don’t know if that higher risk is actually due to excess weight or if it’s due to eating a high-calorie or high-fat diet.
Some evidence also suggests that if you’re overweight, you may get less effective treatment for cancer. Preliminary studies have indicated that heavier women may need more chemotherapy to treat breast cancer than thinner women, but they may not get it because doctors are afraid of administering higher, more toxic levels of the drugs. The side effects of chemotherapy drugs can include damage to the heart and other organs, and the growth of cancer at other sites, so doctors may undertreat their heavier patients.
Simplifying Pregnancy
Being overweight during pregnancy can pose serious problems for both you and your baby. Some studies show that labor takes longer for overweight and obese women. The longer the labor, the increased chance the baby will have to be delivered by Caesarean section.
Overweight pregnant women are at higher risk of developing medical complications, such as high blood pressure, preeclampsia (any of several medical conditions associated with high blood pressure during pregnancy), and gestational diabetes. These conditions usually clear up after delivery, but after they occur, they’re more likely to develop again later in life. If you require surgery during pregnancy or delivery, your risk of complications increases with increased weight.
Some studies have also shown that women who are obese when they become pregnant have a higher risk of delivering an infant who is stillborn or dies shortly after birth. Women who are simply overweight, however, appear to have the same risk as those of normal weight. (For definitions of “overweight” and “obese,” flip to Chapter 2.)
Check out Chapter 10 for more info about pregnancy and weight loss.
Living Longer
Scientific evidence has shown that the maximum lifespan for humans is about 125 years, although few people actually hang around that long. But in the hope of living to their ripest old age, a small but devoted group of people who belong to the Calorie Restriction Society are trying to prove that eating less can help you live longer. Science hasn’t been able to prove it in humans yet, but animal studies seem to support the theory that fewer calories can mean a longer life, at least for mice, monkeys, and fruit flies.
Calorie restriction for the purpose of living longer isn’t the same as following a low-calorie diet to lose weight, and the concept is too new for most health professions to condone it. My advice to anyone who hopes to live longer by restricting calories is to follow a nutritionally balanced, reduced-calorie diet plan just like the one in this book. If cutting calories turns out to add years to your life, those years will be more enjoyable if you’ve remained healthy by supplying your body with all the nutrients it needs.
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