Are you not happy with your BMI?
Let us recap. A good BMI is between 18.5 to less than 25. To be underweight means having a BMI less than 18.5. To be in the overweight category, your BMI lies between 25.0 to 30. Higher than 30, you are considered to be obese.
Let us check your BMI. Are you happy with it?
Click here to calculate your BMI
What does it feel to be obese?
Today we will discuss high BMI or obesity. Most people do not like to be called obese. Obesity is not a pleasant word to their ears. Obesity is linked to lethargy, overeating, huge appetites, suppressed satiety, and over-sensitivity if declined food.
Obesity leads to negative emotions, distress, anger, fear, causes low self-esteem, and creates a lack of self-confidence.
Signs of low self esteem
Being unhappy tends to spread around and it is reflected by relationships with others. The obese person often tends to keep to himself and is unfriendly to others around him. He has a self-imposed shield to protect himself from being ridiculed due to his physical attribute.
Being alone leads to poor dietary habits, sedentary behavior, negative mood swings, and pessimistic attitudes.
Challenges to the Obese
For the obese to take action, he/ she must first accept the fact that he/she is obese. Self-denial and attributing obesity to external factors such as genetics and heredity is a likely barrier to weight loss. Once the obese individual realizes the implications and health risks due to obesity, then only public health initiatives can succeed.
It is very challenging to lose a big chunk of your weight. More often than not, people tend to give up and revert to their original situation or gain more weight afterward.
There are many organizations advising and offering lifestyle and diet changes. However, maintaining a good and healthy lifestyle requires strong willpower and lots of self-motivation. Studies show that even with professional help, 85% of individuals regained weight or exceeded pre-treatment weight 3-5 years post-treatment.
Why do we let these professionals get rich while we do not benefit from their assistance?
Let’s get out of our comfort zone
If you want to live longer and enjoy a better quality of life, you have to make sacrifices. Get out of your comfort zone. You must take control of your life; and your health.
- Drop all your poor dietary habits now. Today. No more smoking, nor excessive alcohol use.
- Get up from your couch. No more watching ‘Netflix’, playing computer games, and interacting with social media.
- Change your unhealthy diet.
- Get out of your house and see your neighborhood. Take gentle walks before you progress to brisk walks.
- If need be, if you already have underlying health issues like diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease; seek your physician’s advice before you start your exercise regime.
- Also, seek professional help from personal health trainers to customize your exercise regime.
- Improve your health literacy, subscribe to health journals and set goals to reduce your BMI.
- Seek the company of people with similar goals.
The onus is on each of us to make society a healthy one. Let us all work to build a healthy and caring society.