Obesity is now considered a health epidemic.
Consider these facts:
- Nearly two out of every three Americans are overweight or obese.
- One out of every eight deaths in America is caused by an illness directly related to overweight and obesity.
- In the current trend, half of Americans are projected to obese by 2030.
- In the year 2000, the total annual cost of obesity in US was $117 billion.
- Excess weight leads to an increase in type 2 diabetes. At least 17 million Americans have diabetes and another 16 million have pre-diabetes. Diabetes costs America $132 billion each year and can lead to eye disease, cardiovascular problems, kidney failure, and early death.
- The annual cost of obesity is $4879 for women and $2646 for men, respectively. (GWU Study)
Solution: Call for Lifestyle Change
If obesity is the problem, then proper nutrition through healthy eating and regular exercise provide the solutions.
Realistic goals can be set and achieved using consistency and moderation as the guide. Healthy diet with portion size control and daily exercise is the key to success. The fundamental fact of obesity prevention and optimal weight management lies in the metabolism and energy balance in calories.
Currently only about 5% of Americans participate in some type of regular daily exercise while two-thirds would be more motivated if advised by their doctors. I'm sure many Americans participate in TV watching or video game playing.
For an exercise and nutrition program to be successful, one would start low and go slow. Small success gives you more motivation to stay on it. A startup program would call for 30 minutes of low intensity physical activity initially three to five times a week.
In addition to overall health, lifestyle activity is effective in the prevention of treatment of a variety of chronic conditions. The benefits increase with incremental levels of exercise intensityand weight loss.
In a final note, here is the quote from the US Surgeon General Dr. Carmona in 2010 for us, fitness professionals in particularly, to take charge in making our healthy American goals a reality.
"As Surgeon General, I charge you to make healthy personal choices in your own lives, and to set good examples for all the children arond you. And, I ask yo to work with me to support our efforts to improve Americans' health literacy, to put prevention first, and to end our nation's obesity epidemic before it has a change reach into another generation of Americans."
Carey Yang is a certified personal trainer and fitness expert in Morris County, New Jeresy. He's the Health Columnist and Fitness Blogger for Patch - Morris Township and Morris Plains.
This blog post was originally published at http://morris.patch.com/blog_posts/your-half-fat-chance-by-2030
