How Losing Weight Can Improve Your Health

Most of us always seem to have a few excess pounds, at least in the gap between one diet and the next. Everyone wants to look good, and most of us fight the good fight to keep weight off.

But if you think about it, instead of dieting to improve your looks, maybe you should consider what excess weight does to our health. You can drop a few pounds, and do it over again if you need to, but a health problem isn’t always that easy to correct.

It’s common sense to maintain a healthy weight for good health, but that’s not quite the same thing as losing weight purposefully in support of better health. Maybe we think we won’t be able to keep the weight off. So we think losing a few pounds won’t make that much difference in the long run.

But it turns out that isn’t true.

With the advent of bariatric surgery, researchers have had good access to people as they lost weight. They’ve studied what happens to overall health as the pounds drop away, and the results should lead anyone to thinking about the benefits of weight loss.

From these studies, it’s not clear that even a small loss can make a difference in health. If you can drop just 10 percent of access weight, you will most likely improve your health.

Here are some of the recent findings on how people have improved their well-being.

Allergies and Asthma

Excess weight stresses the respiratory system, and stresses your ability to adapt to changing conditions.

Arthritis and Osteoarthritis

Inflammation is a problem in both of these diseases and reduced weight leads to lower inflammation levels in the body. It may have to do with improved nutrition, but pounds make a difference, too.

Foot and Knee Pain

In addition to improvements in arthritic conditions, you can expect to have less foot and knee pain as you lose excess weight. Your feet and knee joints will thank you for lessening the work they do to keep you mobile.

Heart and Vascular Health

Lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol, and an increase in the good HDL cholesterol are just a few of the changes you can expect in heart health by losing weight.

Memory

Studies have shown that compared to control groups people at a normal weight have better memories. How? Who knows, but it happens.

Sleep

Losing weight helps people get better sleep, and it’s been specifically shown to decrease sleep apnea.

Sex Appeal and Sexual Satisfaction

We all want to be admired by the object of our affection, but losing weight really will do more for your love life than just improve the way you look. In one study men with 30 extra pounds were tested to be about 10 years older than their actual chronological age as judged by their testosterone levels.

And here again studies show that losing just 10 percent of body weight results in higher levels of sexual satisfaction. So if need a reason to put effort into weight loss, here it is!

Type 2 Diabetes

Problems with blood sugar are more common among overweight people, but what you need to know is that many people who’ve lost significant weight have been able to reverse a problem with Type 2 Diabetes.