The Real Truth about Diet and Weight Loss
The Right way to go about Diet and Weight Loss
Welcome to Daily Health Check with Dr Gabby.
We have a new topic today. #Diet and #weight loss. I’m sure you must have been bombarded with a lot of conflicting information about the right way to go about diet and weight loss. I’m sure some of you must have tried different kinds of diets with fancy names like mediterranean diet, ketogenic diet etc or perhaps you’ve joined a gym or can’t afford one and are exercising at home.
You may want to ask, are all these necessary? What is the right way to go about diet and weight loss? I will be breaking this down for you in this series. it promises to be very educative.
Why is Diet and a Healthy Weight important?
Many disease conditions are associated with an unhealthy diet and weight such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Recall when we talked about obesity, we talked about body mass index, knowledge of this will be important in this course. Once you know your height and weight, you can calculate your #BMI which is your weight in kg over the square of your height in metres. If the value you get is less than 18.5 you are under weight, if between that and 24.9 you have normal weight, if 25 -29.9 you are overweight, anything above that is obesity.
Note that BMI has limitations in some people like body builders, pregnant women and some ethnicities. What is your BMI?
Should I Diet, Exercise or go for Surgery?
Now that you know you need to lose weight, what is the best way to go about it? Should you start starving yourself, run a marathon or go for surgery?
All these are extreme measures. The best thing to do is to set a target, one that is achievable. You can start by deciding just how much weight you need to lose over a period of time. Don’t set unrealistic targets for yourself. A target of 5% weight loss is a good place to start. For example if you are 100kg , aim to get to 95kg .You may think 5 % is too small, but there are many benefits a 5% weight loss will do to your body. This includes reduced risk of diabetes and heart disease, better sleep, better mood and sexual function.
What is your weight loss target? Join me tomorrow for more.
Stay Healthy!
image: Tomi’s Colour Pavillion