Global obesity epidemic

Let’s start out by getting down to the cold hard facts about the global obesity epidemic. Its not just a question of fitting into that little black dress that we need to think about here there are plenty of other seriously motivating reasons to lose that extra weight.

What exactly do we mean by obese?

Officially a person is considered obese when they have a body mass index over 30 and with a BMI over 25 you are considered overweight. I don’t want to get hung up on body mass index, basically most people just know when they are overweight by the amount of excess fat they have on their body and the fit of their clothes and by looking in the mirror – but if you want to calculate your BMI, have a look at this article for more info.

The obesity epidemic

Globally there are more than 1 billion overweight adults with at least 300 million of them being obese. Studies show that an alarming 66% of US adults were overweight or obese in 2003 and 2004 and following a new study carried out by a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore it is now estimated that if the current level of obesity continues 75 % of adults and nearly 24 percent of US children will be overweight or obese by the year 2015! The story isn’t much different in the UK where the rate of obesity has quadrupled in the last 25 years. In England alone a massive 57% of women and 65% of men were considered overweight or obese. In Canada almost 50% of the population is either overweight or obese and in  Australia 57% of adults are overweight or obese. Globally there are around 1 billion overweight adults of whom 300 million are clinically obese. The World Health Organization has described obesity as a worldwide epidemic.

Health risks associated with being obese

Being overweight or obese is not simply a cosmetic problem as I am sure anyone who has had to lug all that extra weight around with them for any length of time will know. Apart from being inconvenient when you are running for a bus, or trying to get into that cute new outfit you spotted in the store window being overweight can cause some serious health problems. Here’s a quick list for you:

•    Heart disease and stroke
•    High blood pressure
•    Diabetes
•    Cancer
•    Gallbladder disease
•    Osteoarthritis
•    Gout
•    Breathing Problems
•    Back Pain
•    Foot Pain
•    Joint Problems
•    Lack of energy

The more obese a person is the more likely he or she is to have severe health problems. But by controlling your weight you not only get the benefit of looking great, raising your self esteem and level of confidence but the significant benefit of being healthy and feeling great and probably living a much longer and happier life too.

Ok, so we know we want to lose weight, hey what do you think we have been trying to do all these years? But what is the actual solution?

Well, at the risk of sound really irritating and stating the obvious; in order to lose weight you need to eat less fattening food. So that comes down to eating a healthy balanced diet, keeping away from those sugary carbs (you know the ones I’m talking about – cakes, cookies, potato chips, chocolate) and doing some exercise. The fact is losing weight is simple, most diets out there work if you can actually get yourself to stick to them. Of course that’s the big problem, if it was as simple as just choosing a healthy diet to follow, we would all be slim and there wouldn’t be a big fat obesity epidemic right now.

The unavoidable fact here is this; to win the weight loss battle we need to address the psychological side of our behavior and attitude towards food before we even start to think about reorganizing our food and exercise program. Luckily there are many ways to achieve this but it does require a bit of work, here are some weight loss strategies that can help you address the mental side of weight loss.

* Re-program your mindset with daily affirmations
* Analyze your eating behavior use a journal
* Use positive visualization and meditation
* Use powerful written goal setting techniques
* Use positive suggestion hypnosis to help you stick to your diet
* Use Cogniftive Behavior Therapy to balance your thoughts and beliefs
* Use NLP to take control