Best Diets - Weight Loss - Best Bodies

Losing weight can be as bad as being overweight.

by Tanya Zilberter, PhD

Concerns and uncertainty about weight loss advice and education.

Recent clinical studies have revealed that not only weight gain, but also weight loss may increase risks for heart diseases. This finding has led to concern and uncertainty about weight management advice and education.

The relationship between weight change and subsequent risk of a heart attack was examined in 7100middle-aged British men.

+ Men who gained 4-10% body weight had the lowest rate of heart attack.
+ The men who lost weight had an increased risk of heart attack.
+ However, when other risk factors like hypertension, diabetes, serum total cholesterol, blood pressure, social class, initial body mass index, lung function, and smoking status, were excluded, these men had a similar level of risk to the stable group (no weight changes).
+ The men who gained>10% bodyweight had a significantly increased risk oaf heart attack after the above adjustment.
+ The bad news is, however, that men who were initially overweight or obese showed no benefit from weight loss.

But haven't we been taught that:

Obesity is one of the cardiac risk factors along with elevated blood pressure and bad blood cholesterol numbers?

Everybody knows this, right? But how about the following:
"Mexican Americans, a population with a high incidence of obesity, have the same mortality rate as non-Hispanic white Americans, suggesting that obesity does not increase death rate. In the United States, the percentage of the population that is overweight has increased sharply since the 1970s, but the mortality rate has actually decreased. The increase in body weight has had little effect on mortality."

What's the matter?! Maybe obesity is not the reason for heart disease but one of the consequences that cause both overweight AND heart disease?

"Obesity is a relatively weak risk factor for coronary heart disease but it is closely associated with almost all other coronary risk factors. Thus, becoming obese on a Western high fat diet, with development of excess central fat, promotes thermogenesis through a wide range of biochemical and hormonal parameters. Weight loss in middle-aged populations does not apparently lower coronary heart disease incidence, possibly because flack of specificity in methods of weight reduction."


The similar conclusion has been made by the National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, after following up 621 men and 960 women since 1982-84, when they were an average 77 years old.

* Weight loss or weight gain history during previous years mattered more than body weight at any given age in late life.
* Women who displayed greater weight variability (especially the yo-yo type of weight changes) had an increased risk of dying in later life
* Age-adjusted risks of death were highest in women who had a large (> 10%) weight loss.

In the study by the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, among 33834 women aged 55-69, higher body weight
Variability was associated with higher risk of developing chronic diseases (myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes, bone fractures (especially hip fractures).

Quite to the contrary, among 121,700 nurses participating in the Nurses' Health Study program initiated in 1976 by Brigham & Women's
Hospital, Boston and followed up every 2 years, even moderate weight gain after age 18 increases risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease,
certain types of cancer and total mortality. However, in this particular study they did not seem to look at the weight variability and to
weight loss.

Looks like the best way to stay healthy is maintaining a stable weight no matter how much you already weigh.

If you are already above your ideal weight, staying there is better than both gaining even more swell as than losing pounds.

Exercise is always good for you, whether you lose weight or not.

So is healthy eating. Luckily, information about these two aspects of a healthy life style is abundant and not controversial like that of
weight loss.

For instance:

A low calorie diet (800-1200 kcal/day) and bicycle ergometer training (15 min, 8 times a week) reduced body weight, cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) levels, resting and working heart rate, and blood pressure. Even better news is that it didn't matter how intensive the exercise was, both 50% maximal and 30% maximal workouts worked just well reducing those numbers. However, people working out harder were able to get stronger and leaner than those working out less hard.




People who read this article also read:
Weight Loss Dangers
Diet Drugs
Gastric Bypass Surgery: Is It Right For You?


Sources

Obes Res 1997 Sep;5(5):402-9
Clin Ther 1997 Jul-Aug;19(4):811-20
Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1996 Jan;20(1):63-75
Am J Cardiol 1996 Sep 15;78(6):642-6
J Epidemiol Community Health 1995 Jun;49(3):265-70
Rev Rhum Engl Ed 1996 Mar;63(3):201-6
Mol Psychiatry 1997 Jul;2(4):335-40
Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1997 Oct;216(1):28-43
Cancer 1994 Aug 1;74(3 Suppl):1090-100
Psychol Med 1996 Mar;26(2):381-90
Biol Psychiatry 1996 Oct 15;40(8):761-8
J Neurosci 1995 Oct;15(10):6640-50
Obes Res 1995 Nov;3 Suppl 4:525S-529S
Arch Fam Med 1995 Oct;4(10):844-8
Versicherungsmedizin 1995 Feb 1;47(1):17-23


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