What Effect Does Weight Have On Your Health? | Premier Health

How Excess Weight Affects Your Health

Understanding the increased risks to your health

Excess pounds do more than increase your weight—they increase your risk of major health problems. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to have heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer, and depression. Fortunately, losing weight can reduce your risk of developing some of these problems.

Weight and your health

If you're carrying a lot of excess weight, you're at a higher-than-average risk of 50 various health problems. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some malignancies, as well as less frequent disorders like gout and gallstones, are among the major causes of mortality in the United States. Perhaps even more persuasive is the significant association between excess weight and depression, because this common mood condition can have a severe, negative influence on your everyday life.

A Harvard research that pooled data from over 50,000 men (participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up research) and over 120,000 women (participants in the Nurses' Health Study) found some grim weight and health figures.

The participants supplied information about their diets, health practises, and medical histories, as well as their height and weight. The volunteers were followed by researchers for more than ten years. They tracked the frequency of diseases and related them to each subject's body mass index (BMI)—a calculation of an individual's relative body fat based on height and weight.

Obesity raised the risk of diabetes by 20 times and elevated the chance of getting high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and gallstones significantly. There was a clear association between BMI and risk among persons who were overweight or obese: the higher the BMI, the greater the incidence of illness.


Excess Weight Causes Many Health Problems

Excess weight gain

Weight and depression

Do individuals acquire weight because they are depressed, or do they gain weight because they are depressed? A study of 15 research discovered evidence that both hypotheses are most likely correct. Obese persons had a 55% greater chance of getting depression over time than those of normal weight, according to a research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in 2010. The following are some of the reasons why obesity may raise the risk of depression:

  • Both diseases appear to derive (at least in part) from abnormalities in brain chemistry and function in reaction to stress.
  • Psychological factors are another possibility. Thin means attractive in our culture, and being overweight can reduce self-esteem, which is a proven cause for depression.
  • Odd eating patterns and eating disorders, as well as the physical discomfort of obesity, have all been linked to sadness.
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The study also discovered that depressed people are 58% more likely to become obese. Here are some of the reasons why depression may result in obesity:

  • According to one idea, elevated amounts of the stress hormone cortisol (common in persons with depression) may modify components in fat cells, making fat storage, particularly in the belly, more likely.
  • People who are sad are typically too down to eat appropriately or exercise consistently, making them more prone to weight gain.
  • Some antidepressant drugs promote weight gain.

Sleep apnea: Why snoring is dangerous

If you snore loudly and stop breathing many times during the night, waking up with a snort or choke, you may have sleep apnea, a common disease that is more frequent in those who are overweight or obese.

Your bedmate is more likely to notice these signs than you are. Because people with sleep apnea do not become completely cognizant, they are unaware that they have been awakened, yet these awakenings can interrupt sleep. Not only does sleep apnea typically contribute to daytime tiredness, it also raises the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.

Weight, heart disease, and stroke

High blood pressure and abnormal levels of cholesterol and other lipids in the blood are two of the most prevalent disorders noticed in persons who are overweight. Both can result in concomitant health issues, particularly heart disease and stroke.

Obese persons have approximately six times the rate of high blood pressure as thin people. According to the American Heart Association, gaining 22 pounds increases systolic blood pressure (the first number in a reading) by an average of 3 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (the second number) by an average of 2.3 mm Hg, resulting in a 24% increase in stroke risk.

A 2007 research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine explored the link between obesity and heart disease by combining data from 21 distinct studies involving over 300,000 patients. The study discovered:

    Obesity increased the risk of heart disease by 32%.
    Obesity boosted the risk by 81%.

Although the negative effects of obesity on blood pressure and cholesterol levels may explain for 45% of the increased risk of heart disease, the scientists found that even little quantities of extra weight might raise the likelihood of heart disease irrespective of these well-known dangers.

Overweight persons have a 22% increased risk of stroke than people of normal weight. Obese adults have a 64% greater risk, according to a 2010 study published in the journal Stroke that aggregated data from 25 research involving over two million participants.

Weight and diabetes

Because obesity and overweight are so closely related to diabetes, doctors devised the word "diabesity" to characterise the problem. Approximately 90% of patients with type 2 diabetes (the most prevalent variant) are overweight or obese. Diabetes incidence increased by about 65% between 1996 and 2006.

One of the characteristics of metabolic syndrome is elevated blood sugar levels, which are a hallmark of diabetes. Diabetes, if left untreated or inadequately managed, can cause a variety of serious health issues, including renal failure, blindness, and foot or limb amputations. Diabetes is the sixth largest cause of mortality in the United States today.

Do you suffer from metabolic syndrome?


Metabolic syndrome, a cluster of disorders that occur together, also raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. One of the distinguishing characteristics is abdominal obesity. If you have that issue, you are more likely to have the other traits.

You have metabolic syndrome if you have three or more of the following five characteristics:

    Large waist. A waist circumference of more than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for males.

    Triglyceride levels are high. A fasting triglyceride level of 150 milligrammes per deciliter (mg/dL) or greater.

    Low HDL levels. A HDL ("good") cholesterol level of less than 40 mg/dL in men and 50 mg/dL in women.
  Blood pressure that is too high. A systolic blood pressure measurement of 130 mm Hg or higher, or a diastolic blood pressure value of 85 mm Hg or higher.
    High blood sugar levels. A blood sugar level of 100 mg/dL or greater after fasting.

Weight and cancer

According to some scientists, obesity is the second largest cause of cancer mortality, behind cigarette smoking.

The American Cancer Society studied over 900,000 participants over 16 years in a research published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study discovered a relationship between increased body weight and a variety of malignancies. Among the findings:

  • Overweight and obesity may contribute for 14% of all cancer deaths in males and 20% of all cancer deaths in women aged 50 and up.    Increased BMIs were connected with an increased chance of dying from cancer of the oesophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, or kidney in both men and women.
        Excess weight in males raised their chances of dying from stomach or prostate cancer.
        Women with higher BMIs had a greater risk of dying from cancer of the breast, uterus, cervix, or ovary.

A review paper published in The Lancet in 2008 found similar results. One source of the problem might be that persons who are extremely overweight are less likely to receive cancer screening tests such as Pap smears and mammograms.

According to a study published in The International Journal of Obesity, the bigger the woman, the more likely she was to put off undergoing a pelvic exam, owing to unpleasant encounters with doctors and their office personnel. If men are extremely overweight, screening examinations such as prostate exams may be physically difficult, especially if they tend to retain fat in their hips, buttocks, or thighs.

Weight and lifespan

Being overweight or obese can make getting about difficult. individuals carrying additional pounds have a tougher time walking a quarter-mile, lifting 10 pounds, and rising from an armless chair than individuals at a healthy weight. Experts think that the burden of these issues looks to be bigger than in previous years, most likely because people are now fat for a greater proportion of their lifetimes.


Overweight and obesity can shorten your life by years since extra weight contributes to so many common and severe diseases. A New England Journal of Medicine research that tracked more than 500,000 50- to 71-year-olds for a decade discovered a 20% to 40% rise in death rates among persons who were overweight in midlife. Obese persons died at a rate that was two to three times higher.

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A 2010 study published in the same journal that pooled data from 19 studies that followed nearly 1.5 million white adults aged 19 to 84 for a similar period of time discovered that the risk of death increased with body size, ranging from 44% higher for those who were mildly obese to 250% higher for those with a BMI of 40 to 50.


Lose weight, feel better

Losing extra weight may improve your physical and mental well-being, as well as help you live a longer, healthier life. It's especially reassuring to know that you don't have to drop a lot of weight to get healthy. Even a little weight loss of 5% to 10% of your starting weight can have a major impact on your health. Here are several examples:


  • People with high blood pressure who dropped 10 pounds over six months had 2.8 mm Hg lower systolic blood pressure and 2.5 mm Hg lower diastolic blood pressure. These blood pressure decreases were equal to those caused by therapy with several blood pressure medicines.

  • Weight reduction is so successful that many persons with high blood pressure may discontinue taking blood pressure medication after losing weight, as long as they can keep it off.
    In a study of persons at risk for type 2 diabetes, those who dropped 7% of their weight and exercised for 30 minutes a day reduced their risk of diabetes by nearly 60%.



Effects on Mental Health:

Excess weight has an influence that extends beyond the physical realm and can have a substantial impact on mental well-being. Obese people may have low self-esteem, body image difficulties, sadness, and anxiety. Obesity stigma in society can lead to social isolation and discrimination, increasing mental health issues. To improve holistic well-being, it is critical to address both the physical and mental elements of obesity. 

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