After all of the above discussion about various strategies to lose weight,
I would like to step back a minute and discuss whether or not you
really need to make a large weight loss your goal. You have probably
been told that being overweight is bad for your health, and especially,
that being overweight is strongly associated with developing type
2 diabetes. The incidence of type 2 diabetes is reaching alarming
levels in the United States and is the fourth leading cause of death.
In this chapter I'll discuss the relationship between body weight
and risk of diabetes. I'll describe the kinds of studies used
to draw an association between excess body weight and poor health,
and show that you have to be quite overweight (or underweight) for
it to actually affect your longevity. You can figure out for yourself
if your weight is really something to worry about.
The second part of the chapter will
deal with more controversial findings. Recent studies have shown that
the association between obesity and poor health may not be simple.
Many obese people are also not very physically fit, that is they do
not do well on exercise tests. It may be the lack of physical fitness
that is the real problem. However you can be overweight and be physically
fit. People who are physically fit live longer than people who perform
poorly on exercise tests, and this is true whether or not they are
skinny or fat!
Other
topics in chapter 2
HOW DO YOU KNOW
WHETHER YOU ARE SKINNY OR SLENDER, PLEASANTLY PLUMP OR SIGNIFICANTLY
OVERWEIGHT?
WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEING OVERWEIGHT?
WHAT ARE “IMPAIRED GLUCOSE TOLERANCE”, “INSULIN
RESISTANCE”, AND “DIABETES”?
SOME OBESE PEOPLE ARE AT HIGH RISK FOR DIABETES AND SOME ARE NOT!
FITNESS IS MORE IMPORTANT FOR HEALTH THAN FATNESS
Links to Excerpt Pages
Contents
Introduction
Chapter one
Calories, not fat, make people fat
Chapter two
Fitness is as important as fatness
Chapter three
Heart disease, diabetes, and fat
Chapter four Eating fat does not cause cancer
Chapter five Good fat, bad fat
Chapter six What are saturated and unsaturated fats?
Chapter seven Oils are good for you
Chapter eight All about cholesterol
Chapter nine Watch out for rancid fats
Chapter ten What about antioxidants?
Chapter eleven
Help with hypoglycemia
Chapter twelve Achieving good health by integrating fat wisely
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