Heart Health Part II: Are You Obese?

Continuing with the “American Hearth Month” theme for February I continue with heart disease issues on this and my other blog NewMexicoRD.blogspot.com. Here continues the discussion of modifiable risk factors for heart disease.

A major independent risk factor for heart disease is obesity. Simply put, obesity is defined as too much body fat, which unfortunately about a third of the country is classified as obese and another third of the country is overweight – making fully two-thirds of the nation with a risk factor for heart disease that they can do something about. And NO most of these people are not big boned or very muscular.

Previously I mentioned that you should know your numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose – and take some steps to improve those numbers. Being overweight or obese can increase blood pressure, increase total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, lower HDL cholesterol, and increase blood glucose. So the first step to improve those numbers: Lose Weight…

Even if these numbers are in “normal” ranges, obesity is still a risk factor for heart disease. The heart has to work harder every minute of every day to circulate the blood to the entire body.

How do you know if you are in the obese or overweight category? Generally speaking people who are in this category can do one of two things: calculate their BMI (aka Body Mass Index) or measure their waist circumference.

BMI measures and calculated a number based on your weight to your height and does not distinguish between men and women or lean body mass (bones, muscle, and water weight for example) and fat mass. It is your weight in kg divided by height in meters squared (kg/m2). There are many places on the web that can calculate it for you and tell you what it means. My favorite is the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, but you can “google” BMI to find one. A BMI value between 25.0 and 29.9 is overweight, and a BMI value of 30.0 or greater is considered obese.

Waist circumference is another way to measure your risk. Measure at your belly button, just so you know for next time where to measure again. Do not measure where you wear your pants, especially if you are a man, since many people wear their pants way below their fat/waist! IF you measure greater than 35 inches as a woman or greater than 40 inches as a man – you have a fat problem and need to do some work…Oh and if you want to suck it in when you measure, go ahead, but you are only sucking in air, not fat.

Do you need to lose weight? First thing, know you can reduce your risk by losing just 7-10% of your current body weight initially. That may not seem to daunting!

How do you lose the weight? Step 1: Don't do a silly crash diet. Step 2: Cut down on calories – don’t worry about cutting carbs, bread, white foods, blah, blah, blah…You HAVE to cut down on calories, so cut those portions down!

Step 3: Next post…will tell you another big key to help you with your weight/fat loss goal.