Thinking about losing weight?

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Are you thinking about losing weight?

Maintaining a healthy weight can reduce your risk of developing health issues such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes, breathing problems and certain cancers. Healthy weight loss is a lifestyle change that occurs as a result of healthy eating and physical activity. Finding the right combination of strategies that work for you can be a challenge, but it’s possible! If you’re struggling with losing weight, these strategies may help.

Eat healthy to weight loss

This requires balanced nutrition. A well-balanced diet includes lean sources of protein, carbohydrates (while making half your grain servings whole grains), 5 to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables, as well as healthy fats such as those found in nuts, seeds and olive oil. Check out the Nutrition section of our blog for great tips to help you eat healthy!

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Enjoy unhealthy foods in moderation

Following a balanced diet doesn’t require you to eliminate foods that you enjoy, but to enjoy them in moderation. By allowing yourself to eat for pleasure some of the time, it may help to prevent binge eating and feelings of guilt that may lead to more eating.

Eat regularly and don’t skip meals

Contrary to popular belief, eating regularly can increase your chances of weight loss. After 3 to 4 hours of not eating, our bodies can go into a “survival” mode, storing calories rather than burning them, which may result in weight gain. Plus, skipping meals can increase the likelihood of overeating when you do finally sit down for a meal.

Stay active

Physical activity is also important for weight loss, but it is not limited to exercise. Reducing sedentary behaviour is an easy strategy to raise activity levels. Find yourself sitting for a long time during work or while relaxing outside of work? The longer you sit, the bigger the health consequences, including excess storage of abdominal fat. Stand up and move around as often as you can, take short walks, perform stretching and desk exercises, or exercises (like squats, crunches, etc.) that can be performed while watching TV. .

Start exercising!

To further your weight loss goals, getting started with an exercise routine outside of your normal activities will help you see quicker results. Check with your doctor prior to beginning exercise to determine if there are any exercise limitations you should keep in mind. Examples of exercise include walking, biking, jogging, taking fitness classes, and swimming, just to name a few. Access great exercise information in the Fitness section of our blog. .

Calorie Consume vs. Expenditure

Basically, weight loss comes down to calories—if you are eating more calories than you are burning, you will gain weight. Creating a deficit in calories through healthy eating, physical activity, or both will result in weight loss over time. As 3,500 calories is equal to one pound, in order to lose one pound per week, you would have to create a deficit of 500 calories per day for 7 days through nutrition, physical activity, or ideally a combination of the two. .

How Low is Too Low?

While calories need to be reduced to lose weight, skipping meals or not eating enough is neither effective nor healthy. In fact, it can result in weight gain. The average woman requires a minimum of 1200 calories per day and the average man requires 1500 calories to maintain essential life functions. If you are active, you may have additional calorie requirements—the more active you are, the more calories you’ll need to support your activity. Weight loss and maintaining the lost weight comes from creating and implementing healthy lifestyle changes. Determining healthy changes that fit within your routine will increase your chances for success. After all, the steps you take to lose the weight are the same steps that you need to maintain to keep the weight off. .

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A Little change also can change your Life

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Start Small Changes For Your health:

Small changes can add up for a healthy lifestyle. Choose one change to focus on at a time and have the whole family make the change together! Children learn by watching their role models - and that's you! For example, you may decide to make sure there is a vegetable at evening meals for a week. Once you have your first change down, it's time to celebrate! Do a happy dance or high-five a friend. Then, add another change to your next week. Before you know it, you have found the healthy eating style that works for you and your family.

What is Nutrieat?

Nutrieat is an easy way to see the five food groups that build a healthy diet and can help you find a healthy eating style that works for you and your family. Nutrieat can be a good place to start seeing where healthy changes could be made. But remember focus on one change at a time!

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Nutrieat: Your Five Food Groups

Main Five Food Groups

The five food groups that make up Nutrieat are Vegetables, Fruits, Grains, Proteins, and Dairy.

Vegetables

Any whole vegetable or 100% vegetable juice counts on Nutrieat! Choose veggies that are fresh, frozen, or canned. Vegetables provide important nutrients that are important for your health.

Quick Tip: If you limit your salt intake – look for low sodium canned vegetables instead, or drain and rinse the vegetables to remove some of the sodium before cooking.

All vegetables are great choices – make some of your choices even better by choosing dark green, red, and orange veggies! Think kale, spinach, red bell peppers, and carrots to get more dark green, red, and orange in your week.

Fruits

Is fruit the perfect sweet addition to any meal or snack? We think so! What counts as a fruit on Nutrieat? Fruits that are fresh, canned, frozen, dried, or 100% fruit juice are all good choices. Choose fresh and whole fruits when you can – like a whole banana, apple, or handful of grapes. Stick with canned fruits that have 100% fruit juice or light syrup instead of heavy syrups. We recommend limiting 100% fruit juice to 1 cup (225 ml) per day.

Grains

Any food made from cereal grains like wheat, oats, and barley falls into this food group. Common grain foods include bread, pasta, crackers, rice, cereal, and tortillas! Grains are a great source of carbohydrates, which our body uses for energy. Aim to choose whole grain sources at least half of the time. These foods not only pack great flavour, but great nutrition! They contain important nutrients and fibre for good health. What are your top grain picks? We love corn tortillas, whole wheat bread, oatmeal, brown rice, and quinoa!

Proteins

Protein foods include both meat and vegetable-based choices! Meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, nuts & seeds, and beans & peas all contain protein and other nutrition for good health. Lean or lower-fat options are more heart healthy, such as lean or extra-lean ground beef, skinless chicken, unsalted nuts, or beans.

Dairy and Substitutes

Milk and many foods made from milk are part of the dairy group. Dairy products, such as milk, yogurt, and cheese, contain many nutrients, such as protein and calcium, for good health. Calcium is important for strong bones and teeth! Soy-milk is also part of the Dairy group if it is fortified with calcium (has calcium added). Aim to choose more low fat and fat-free choices! Dairy is in the blue circle to the side of Nutrieat. Two to three servings per day (1 serving = 225 ml glass of milk) can help most of us meet our daily calcium needs.

Better Beverages: They Learn from Watching You!

“I learned about how much sugar was in some of my family’s favourite drinks and was shocked! We have started cutting back and drinking more water instead. We still drink those old favourites sometimes, but now only as a treat instead of every day.”

There are so many choices when it comes to drinks and beverages! It really can be tough to know which ones are the best options for our families. Many drinks have added sugar, fat, or salt. Balance your beverage choices with activity and healthy foods for a lifestyle that works for you! Get the kids involved, too. They can help make healthy choices at home!

Good And Bad Beverages

Best Choices: Yes! Offer and choose these drinks most often to stay hydrated

• Water (plain or seltzer)
• Unsweetened tea or coffee (limit coffee to 4 cups per day or less)
• 1% or fat-free milk (3 cups per day)

Choose Less Often: Slow Down! These beverages are not as good for you

• Diet Soft Drinks or Sodas
• Flavoured waters
• 100% juice (limit to 1 cup per day)

Choose Rarely: Limit these to rare occasions! These drinks have more added sugars, fats, or alcohol.

• Soft Drinks or Sodas
• Energy or Sports Drinks
• Fruit Flavoured Drinks
• Sweetened Coffee Drinks
• Milkshakes or Smoothies
• Alcoholic Beverage.

The Truth Behind Weight Loss Ads

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 The Truth Behind Weight Loss Ads

Image: unsplash /jimmy 

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could lose weight simply by consuming a pill, wearing a patch or belts, or rubbing in a cream? Unfortunately, claims that you can lose weight without changing your habits just aren’t true, and some of these products could even hurt your health.

So don’t be hooked by ads that woo you with wild promises or by glowing product reviews and “news articles” that are often fake. All you’ll lose is money. 

Doctors, dieticians, and other experts agree: the best way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more.

If you’re looking to lose weight, watch this video and read the rest of the article. This information will help you identify false claims in weight loss ads and false online stories about weight loss products.

False promises in ads

Dishonest advertisers will say just about anything to get you to buy their weight loss products.

Here are some of the (false) promises from weight loss ads:

• Lose weight without dieting or exercising. (You won’t.)
• You don’t have to watch what you eat to lose weight. (You do.)
• If you use this product, you’ll lose weight permanently. (Wrong.)
• To lose weight, all you have to do is take this pill. (Not true.)
• You can lose 30 pounds in 30 days. (Nope.)
• This product works for everyone. (It doesn’t.)
• Lose weight with this patch or cream. (You can’t.)

Here’s the truth:

• Any promise of miraculous weight loss is simply untrue.
• There’s no magic way to lose weight without a sensible diet and regular exercise.
• No product will let you eat all the food you want and still lose weight.
• Permanent weight loss requires permanent lifestyle changes, so don’t trust any product that promises once-and-for-all results.

• Products promising lightning-fast weight loss are always a scam. Worse, they can ruin your health.
• Even if a product could help some people lose weight in some situations, there’s no one-size-fits-all product guaranteed to work for everyone. Everyone’s habits and health concerns are unique.
• Nothing you can wear or apply to your skin will cause you to lose weight. Period.

False stories online

Dishonest advertisers place false stories online through fake news websites, blogs, banner ads, and social media to sell bogus weight loss products. This is what they do:

• Post false “news” stories.  They create so-called “news” reports online about how an ingredient (like garcinia cambogia) found in a diet pill is supposedly effective for weight loss.
• Use logos of legitimate news outlets. They place the stolen logos of real news organisations, or they use names and web addresses that look like those of well-known news outlets and websites.
• Feature phone investigations. They say these false stories are "investigations" into the effectiveness of a product, and even add public photos of known reporters to make you think the report is real.
• Pay for positive online reviews. Sometimes they write glowing online reviews themselves or pay others to do so.  Sometimes they just cut and paste positive comments from other fake sites.
• Use stock or altered photos. Very often they use images showing a dramatic weight loss, but these images are just stock or altered photographs.

Weight Loss Healthy Eating Plan

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A healthy eating plan gives your body the nutrients it needs every day while staying within your daily calorie goal for weight loss. A healthy eating plan also will lower your risk for heart disease and other health conditions.

image: nutrieat.org

A healthy eating plan:

• Emphasises vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products
• Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts
• Limits saturated and trans fats, sodium, and added sugars
• Controls portion sizes

Calories

To lose weight, most people need to reduce the number of calories they get from food and beverages (energy IN) and increase their physical activity (energy OUT).

For a weight loss of 1–1 ½ pounds per week, daily intake should be reduced by 500 to 750 calories. In general:

• Eating plans that contain 1,200–1,500 calories each day will help most women lose weight safely.
• Eating plans that contain 1,500–1,800 calories each day are suitable for men and for women who weigh more or who exercise regularly.

Very low calorie diets of fewer than 800 calories per day should not be used unless you are being monitored by your doctor.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

| About the Author of this |

Nutreat weight loss Team | Supporting with trusted resources Researches| for any information or queries please write us in “ask us form”  we will respond as soon as possible |

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Disclaimer: Nutrieat works with a well experienced team. But nutrieat insists before use any type of subject matter mentioned on our website you should ask your concerned professionals about. 

You can ask experienced dieticians of nutrieat through the Ask Us forum below, our team will try to answer your questions as soon as possible. Thanks for visiting nutrieat

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Essential Supplements that Required After 40

This is why after you turn 40 you need some vitamins. Your body, regardless of your gender has several special needs while ageing. There are certain vitamin deficiencies that a lot of 40 plus people suffer from. Hence there are vitamin supplements that you need to deal with all the changes that your body is undergoing. Here are some of these vitamins nutrieat recommends but not insist to consume without advise of your doctor.

Calcium

With age, you can start to lose more of this mineral than you absorb. That can make your bones break more easily (osteoporosis), especially for women after menopause. Calcium helps your muscles, nerves, cells, and blood vessels work right. You get most of it from your bones, which get it from food. Women over 50 and men over 70 should get about 20% more than other adults. Milk, yogurt, and cheese are good sources.

Vitamin B12

It helps make blood and nerve cells. You get it naturally from animal foods like meat, fish, eggs, and dairy. Pills, shots, and “B12-fortified” foods, like breakfast cereal, are other sources. Most Americans eat enough, but age can change that. Up to 30% of people over 50 have atrophic gastritis, which makes it harder for your body to absorb it from foods. Antacids, some meds, and weight loss surgery can contribute to a lack of B12.

Vitamin D

Your body needs it to absorb calcium. So take them in tandem to help prevent osteoporosis. Vitamin D also helps your muscles, nerves, and immune system work right. Most people get some vitamin D from sunlight. But your body is less able to convert sun’s rays to vitamin D as you age. It’s harder to get this vitamin from foods, but fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines are a good source.

Magnesium 

It helps your body make protein and bone, and it keeps your blood sugar stable. You can get it from nuts, seeds, and leafy greens. But older people tend to eat less of it. Plus, they're more likely to have long-term health conditions or take many medications, both of which may leave you short of magnesium.

Vitamin B6

Your body uses it to fight germs and to make energy. It also helps babies’ brains grow. You need more B6 as you get older. Some studies have found links between high B6 blood levels in seniors and better memory. But the vitamin doesn’t seem to improve mental abilities in people with dementia. Chickpeas are an easy and inexpensive source. So are liver, fatty fish and fortified breakfast cereals.

Probiotics

These “friendly” bacteria are good for your gut. You get them from fermented foods like yogurt or sauerkraut, or from supplements. They can help with digestive issues like diarrhoea or irritable bowel syndrome, and may even protect against allergies. Probiotics are likely safe if you’re healthy. But talk to your doctor first if you have any medical issues or a weakened immune system.

Omega-3s

These fatty acids are called “essential” because your body can’t make them. They’re important for your eyes, brain, and sperm cells. They also could help protect against age-related disease like Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and macular degeneration, which can cause blindness. Unless your doctor says otherwise, it’s best to get your omega-3s from food like fatty fish, walnuts, canola oil, or flaxseed.

Zinc

Many American seniors don’t get enough of this under-appreciated micronutrient. It helps your sense of smell and taste, and fights infections and inflammation -- all important jobs in older bodies. Zinc also may protect your vision. Oysters are far and away the best source of this mineral. Otherwise, you can get it from beef, crab, and fortified breakfast cereals.

Selenium

It protects your cells from damage and infection, and keeps your thyroid working the right way. Selenium also can keep your muscles strong, and may help prevent age-linked illnesses like dementia, some types of cancer, and thyroid disease. Just one or two Brazil nuts a day should be enough. Don’t overdo it. Too much selenium can make your hair fall out and turn your nails brittle.

Potassium

Potassium plays a part in almost everything inside your body, including your heart, kidneys, muscles, and nerves. It also may help protect against stroke, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis. Many Americans don’t get enough. Dried apricots, bananas, spinach, milk, and yogurt are good sources. Ask your doctor before you take supplements. They can interfere with medications for high blood pressure, migraine, and other conditions.

Folate

This natural form of vitamin B9 is in leafy greens, nuts, beans, and other foods. Pregnant women take a lab-made form of vitamin B9 called folic acid to help prevent birth defects. Folate helps with cell growth and may protect against stroke and certain cancers. Most Americans get enough. Folate found in foods is safe. But too much folic acid from supplements or fortified foods can raise your odds of having colon cancer or nerve damage.

Fibre

You probably know fibre is good for you. But did you know it’s even more important as you age? Fibre helps protect against strokes, helps you poop more regularly, and lowers your cholesterol and blood sugar big benefits in older bodies. Women over 50 should get at least 21 grams a day, while men need 30 grams, but most people don’t get that much. That’s equal to about 6-8 servings of whole grains, or 8-10 servings of vegetables.

Where to Get Them

Whether it’s vitamins, minerals, or fibre, it’s best to get them from foods instead of pills. But that can be a challenge for some older Americans, especially if you don’t eat a balanced diet. You’re most likely to lack vitamin D, potassium, calcium, or dietary fibre. If you think you need more than you can get from food, talk to your doctor about supplements that will be safe with your meds, diet, and health.

Multivitamins

There’s little, if any, proof that multivitamins benefit seniors who are otherwise healthy. Multivitamins marketed at seniors may be tailored with higher doses of vitamins D or B12 or less iron. But unless you have a poor appetite or have conditions that keep you from eating a healthy diet, you probably don’t need them.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

| About the Author of this |

Nutreat Team | Supporting with trusted resources Research websites: https://www.fda.gov| for any information or queries please write us in “ask us form”  we will respond as soon as possible |

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Disclaimer: Nutrieat works with a well experienced team. But nutrieat insists before use any type of subject matter mentioned on our website you should ask your concerned professionals about. 

You can ask experienced dieticians of nutrieat through the Ask Us forum below, our team will try to answer your questions as soon as possible. Thanks for visiting nutrieat

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Healthy Weight

Healthy Weight

What is a healthy weight? The answer is different for everyone. But it’s important to know what a healthy weight is for you. Check out our top questions and answers on weight, weight gain, and weight loss. And talk to your doctor or nurse about your weight goals. Women often gain and lose weight differently, so the steps you need to take to lose weight may be different from the steps someone else needs to take.

©Image: allgo-un-Nutrieat-splash

How do I know if I have overweight or obesity?

You can use the body mass index (BMI) to find out whether your weight is in a healthy or unhealthy range. BMI is a tool to estimate body fat. Find your BMI by typing your height and weight into this BMI calculator from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Women with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight.
• Women with a BMI of 30 or more have obesity.

BMI gives you a good idea of how healthy your weight is. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. BMI is less accurate in some people than in others. For example, if you are very muscular, you may be healthy even if your BMI is above 25. This is because muscle weighs more than fat.

Another way to figure out if you have a healthy weight is to measure your waist circumference (the distance around your waist). Researchers and doctors have agreed that women with a waist circumference larger than 35 inches are at higher risk for many health problems caused by overweight or obesity.2

What causes obesity?

People develop obesity when their body stores more calories than it uses over time. Your body needs calories (and essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients) to work properly and to be active. But if your body stores more calories than it uses, you will gain weight.

Researchers know that a person's environment over a lifetime can influence whether obesity happens. While it's true that the food you eat is an important part of weight gain or loss, other parts of your life that you do not control can make obesity more likely. Learn more about how where you live affects weight.

How common are overweight and obesity?

Overweight and obesity are very common in the United States. More than 2 in 3 women in the United States older than 20 have overweight or obesity.1

Does overweight and obesity affect some women more than others? 

Women of all ages, races, and ethnicities have overweight and obesity. But overweight and obesity are more common among some groups:

• About 4 in 5 black or African-American women have overweight or obesity.1
• More than 3 in 4 Hispanic or Latina women have overweight or obesity.1
• Lesbians and bisexual women are more likely to have overweight or obesity than heterosexual women.3

Many factors play a role in overweight and obesity, including your family background and events in the past and the place where you live.

Talk to your doctor or nurse if you are worried about your weight. There are some risk factors for overweight and obesity that you can't control. But your doctor or nurse may recommend eating habits and physical activity to help you reach a healthier weight. Also, some medicines can cause weight gain or make it difficult to lose weight. If you think your medicine is affecting your weight, talk to your doctor or nurse. You may be able to try a different medicine.

What individual factors unique to me can make it more likely that I'll gain weight?

Obesity is a complex disease that is the result of many different parts of a person's life that happen over a long period of time. Things that can affect your weight include:

• Genes and family background. Obesity tends to run in families. But there is not one “fat” gene. There are many genes that may work together to make you more likely to gain weight. The situation you live in also affects your genes. When you are a baby or young child, your parents or caregivers control your eating and physical activity. This family background can influence your weight as an adult.
• Metabolism. People's metabolism rates (how fast your body “burns” calories) may vary for many reasons, and this can affect weight gain and loss. For instance, men usually have more muscle and less fat than women do, so men's bodies might burn more calories more quickly. A woman's metabolism may change throughout her life, such as with the hormonal changes that happen during puberty, pregnancy, and menopause.
• Age. Your metabolism may slow down as you get older. Also, as we age, we lose muscle. With less muscle to burn calories, we need fewer calories.
• Trauma. Many events in the past that you didn't have control over and are not your fault can affect when and how quickly you gain weight. Women who experience serious, negative events during childhood, such as abuse or a parent with a problem with alcohol or drugs, are more likely to have obesity as adults.4,5 Researchers have found that girls who are sexually abused may be more likely to gain weight faster as young adults and develop obesity at a younger age.6,7 Also, women who experience a traumatic event at any time and develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be more likely to gain weight quickly after the traumatic event and develop obesity.8
• Medicines. Many of the medicines that women take every day, including medicines for mental health conditions, sleep, and high blood pressure, can cause weight gain or make it difficult to lose weight. If you take any prescription medicine and have extra weight, talk to the doctor or nurse who prescribed the medicine about the best ways to safely lose weight and possible alternatives to that prescription medicine.
• Sleep. Not getting enough high-quality sleep can lead to weight gain.9 Researchers think this may be because low-quality sleep can affect your hormone levels, which can affect your appetite and food choices. Not getting enough sleep to feel rested may also affect how much physical activity or exercise you get throughout the day.10

How can the place where I live make it more likely that I'll gain weight?

Many parts of our everyday lives may make weight gain very common. These include:

• Neighbourhoods. How easy or safe is it to walk and be physically active? Some neighbourhoods don't have sidewalks or parks. It may not be safe to walk around outside in other neighbourhoods. Some places where people live have so much traffic that it may be difficult for people with disabilities to get around outside.
• Healthy food availability. Are healthy food options close to where you live, work, or go to school? Many people do not have low-cost, healthy food options where they live. Some people live near many fast-food restaurants but no grocery stores. 
• Pollution. Is there air pollution or other pollution where you live? Some researchers found that air pollution, including secondhand smoke, is linked to obesity. Some researchers think that chemicals from pollution in the food we eat can lead to obesity in the United States. Sometimes living close to highways or other busy roads may increase your chances of obesity.

What are the health effects for women who are at an unhealthy weight?

Overweight and obesity indirectly cause millions of deaths each year.Having overweight or obesity raises your risk for many serious health problems:

• Breathing problems. Women who have overweight or obesity may develop sleep apnea. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing briefly or to take shallow breaths while you sleep. It may be caused by fat in the neck that narrows the airways. People with sleep apnea do not get enough oxygen to their brain or body during sleep. This can cause many health problems, including heart disease.
• Many types of cancer. Women who have overweight or obesity are more at risk for 13 different kinds of cancer: breast, colon and rectal, endometrial, gallbladder, stomach, esophagus (throat), liver, kidney, meningioma (cancer of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord), multiple myeloma (cancer of blood plasma cells), pancreatic, ovarian, and thyroid cancers.
• Diabetes. Extra weight makes you twice as likely to get diabetes. Weight loss can prevent diabetes. It can also help control blood glucose if you already have diabetes and make you less likely to need medicine to control diabetes.
• Heart disease. The more excess weight you have, the higher your risk of heart disease, which is the leading cause of death of women in the United States. This is true even if you have no other health conditions that raise your risk of heart disease. Learn more about how overweight and obesity affect your risk for heart disease.
• High blood pressure. Compared with women who do not have overweight or obesity, women with overweight are twice as likely to have high blood pressure. Women with obesity are three times as likely to have it.19 Losing weight helps reduce blood pressure. High blood pressure damages your arteries and can lead to many other serious health problems such as stroke and heart disease.
• High cholesterol. Excess fat sends chemical signals that change how your body processes food. It raises LDL (bad) cholesterol and lowers HDL (good) cholesterol. This speeds the buildup of fatty plaque in our arteries. Losing weight can help get cholesterol to healthy levels. High LDL cholesterol can cause heart disease and other serious health problems.
• Pregnancy problems. If you have overweight or obesity, it may be more difficult to get pregnant. Overweight and obesity can also cause complications during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes or dangerously high blood pressure. Obesity can also cause a more serious condition called preeclampsia. Getting early and regular prenatal care can help you and your doctor be aware of any problems and help prevent them.
• Stroke. Having overweight or obesity increases your risk of stroke, especially when you carry extra body fat around your waist (apple-shaped body) rather than around your hips and thighs (pear-shaped body). Learn more about how excess weight can raise your risk for stroke.

Even a small amount of weight loss (3% to 5% of your body weight or less) can help lower your risk for these health problems. If you are a 160-pound woman, losing just 5 to 8 pounds, or 3% to 5% of your body weight, can make you healthier. Talk to your doctor or nurse about your risk and how much weight you may need to lose.

Does it matter where on my body I carry the weight?

 

Yes. Where you carry your weight makes a difference in your health. Belly fat is more dangerous for your health than fat carried elsewhere.

Apple-shaped and pear-shaped body types

Some women tend to carry fat in the belly area (apple-shaped). Other women tend to carry fat in their hips and thighs (pear-shaped). Extra weight is never healthy, but being apple-shaped increases your risk for certain health problems, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer, more than being pear-shaped does.

That is because the type of fat your body stores in your abdomen, near your stomach, is different from the type of fat stored in your thighs and hips.

BMI tells you about how much fat you have on your body, but it does not show where you carry your weight. To measure your waist size, stand up straight and place a tape measure around your middle, just above your hip bones. Measure your waist just after you breathe out.

Most women should aim for a waist size of less than 35 inches.

Of course, this does not mean that if you carry your weight in your hips you should not worry. It's important for all women ― no matter where you carry your weight ― to be physically active and eat healthy to lower your risk for health problems.

When should I talk to a doctor or nurse about my weight?

If you are worried about your weight, or if you have overweight or obesity, talk to your doctor or nurse. Your weight can raise your risk for many health problems and make it harder to get pregnant.

Your doctor or nurse may suggest healthy eating changes and more physical activity to help you reach a healthy weight.

Sources

1. 1.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). (2018). Health, United States, 2017: With Chartbook on Long-term Trends in Health, Table 58. Hyattsville, MD.
2. 2.Flint, A.J., Rexrode, K.M., Hu, F.B., Glynn, R.J., Caspard, H., Manson, J.E., et al. (2010). Body mass index, waist circumference, and risk of coronary heart disease: a prospective study among men and women. Obesity Research and Clinical Practice; 4(3): e171-e181.
3. 3.Newlin Lew, K., Dorsen, C., Melkus, G. D., & Maclean, M. (2018). Prevalence of obesity, prediabetes, and diabetes in sexual minority women of diverse races/ethnicities: Findings from the 2014-2015 BRFSS surveys (link is external). The Diabetes Educator; 44(4): 348-360.
4. 4.Williamson, D.F., Thompson, T.J., Anda, R.F., Dietz, W.H., Felitti, V.J. (2002). Body weight, obesity, and self-reported abuse in childhood. International Journal of Obesity; 26(8):1075–1082.
5. 5.Alvarez, J., Pavao, J., Baumrind, N., Kimerling, R. (2007). The relationship between childhood abuse and adult obesity among Californian women. American Journal of Preventive Medicine; 33(1): 28-33.
6. 6.Smith, H. A., Markovic, N., Danielson, M. E., Matthews, A., Youk, A., Talbott, E. O., et al. (2010). Sexual Abuse, Sexual Orientation, and Obesity in Women. Journal of Women's Health; 19(8): 1525-1532
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