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Last Updated on May 12, 2017 by Marie Bautista
It is almost halfway through the year, and I bet that you guys have stayed faithful to your new year’s health resolutions. I probably did way better last year when I started setting goals like running for around 2 km for 30 days, adding a kilometer for another 30 days until I reach five. I am still running now, although I miss a day or two when I am super tired, but I need to work more on the diet. I am glad I maintained the daily run (although there are some weeks when I can’t run everyday). 
Well, here’s even more reason to stick to my regular-runs and healthy-eating: Shedding extra pounds can also ward off disease and other serious conditions. The result: less time spent in your doctor’s waiting room and more time enjoying your recharged life.
Staying at a healthy weight means you’ll…
Live longer. Keeping your body mass index (BMI) at 24.9 or less could add up to eight years to your life, said a study. Why? The higher your BMI (30 or higher is considered obese), the greater your chances of developing diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallbladder disease, or osteoarthritis. In fact, 80 percent of obese adults have one of these conditions, and 40 percent have two or more. These are the factors, experts believe, that eventually contribute to higher mortality rates in overweight and obese people. Dodge diabetes. In a clinical study, participants who were all at high risk for type 2 diabetes who lost 5 to 7 percent of their body weight reduced their risk of diabetes – a life-threatening disease that causes chronically high blood sugar and can lead to heart and kidney damage – by a staggering 58 percent. Ward off heart disease. Obese people, even those who have no other risk factors (such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol), are at four times greater risk for hospitalization or death from heart disease in older age than people who maintain a normal weight, researchers from a reputable university found. Lower your blood pressure. Drop 10 percent of the weight you’ve gained since you were 18 and chances are you will decrease the top number of your blood pressure by 4 mm Hg. If you have gained 20 pounds since high school, losing as little as two pounds will usually lower your blood pressure. You could also take up to five years off your body age. Boost your fertility. Being overweight (with a BMI between 25 and 29.9) can lower your chances of conceiving. Carrying extra pounds increases estrogen levels, which may prevent you from ovulating regularly or at all. Shedding just 5 to 10 percent of your weight can reduce that risk. Increase your odds of beating breast cancer. Women who were overweight before being diagnosed with breast cancer were one-and-a-half-times more likely to die from the disease. And women who gained an average of 17 pounds after diagnosis had a more than 50 percent greater risk of recurrence or death. Experts suspect the reason obese women have less success battling breast cancer is that they tend to exercise less, have fattier diets, and have higher levels of estrogen – all of which can increase risk. Get more sleep. Losing ten pounds can result in a 30% reduction of sleep apnea 0 a sleep disorder common in overweight people that cases a person to stop breathing for short intervals without realizing it.
