Tip 26: Maintain a Healthy Weight

If I were to assign a number, probably 85% of my cardiac patients are overweight.  A few of them have been overweight since childhood, but most of them started gaining weight in their thirties and forties.  Typically, we gain a little each year as we age—maybe not a significant amount in one year—but a lot over cumulative years.  No matter the number, the majority of my patients are not near a healthy weight.

Interestingly, although the average weight for men and women stayed consistently low for centuries, those averages skyrocketed in the last forty years.  According to The End of Overeating by David Kessler, M.D., in 1960 the weight of the average American woman aged 20 to 29 was 128 pounds; by 2000, the weight was 157 pounds.  Can you believe this statistic?  In forty years the average weight of American women in their twenties increased by 30 pounds!  Thirty pounds!

Current estimates from the Centers for Disease Control are that 74.1% of Americans are overweight or are obese—that is almost all of us!  For the first time in history, our life expectancy has actually gone down.  The list of obesity related conditions which include heart disease, diabetes, depression, orthopedic injuries, sleep apnea, and cancer continues to grow.  In other words, the extra weight is killing us and significantly lessening the quality of our lives in the process. 

If you are overweight, either see your doctor or consult recommended weight guidelines for your height and frame.  If you are not within your healthy weight range, then do something about it.  The 28 Tips in this blog can help you start losing some of those pounds.  If you have a little weight to lose, start using these tips and you will soon have success.  If you have a great amount of weight to lose, do not let the number overwhelm you.  Set small goals which you can easily accomplish.  These goals might be following 3 new tips each week, beginning an exercise program, or trying to lose a small bit of weight like 5 or 10 pounds.  Once you have had success with these goals, set new ones and keep moving.  You can achieve a healthy weight, you just have to start.