It Doesn’t Take Much Extra Weight to Increase Heart Risk

While it is true that the more weight you pack on, the more your heart health risk goes up incrementally along with the extra pounds you pack on, it’s also true that it doesn’t take much extra weight on your body, for both men and women, for you to increase your heart risk.  This means that even if you are just a little bit overweight, you may be adding to your heart risk without necessarily even knowing about it.  When I say a little overweight, apparently the findings now are that this amount only has to be about seven pounds overweight in order for you to add to your risk of heart failure.

Heart failure is basically when your heart gives out and cannot pump blood to the entire body, and it many times is due to undue stress on the body, such as excess fat, especially the type that is in the belly area – I believe this is called visceral fat, and also many times some areas of the heart die off and are no longer able to function and pump blood, cutting off oxygen to the brain and ultimately leading to brain death.

For the average man, for example, for every extra 7 pounds he puts on over hid ideal and normal weight, his heart disease risk increases by about eleven percent with every 20 years that passes.  You can see how those numbers would certainly add up I’m sure.  So, weight gain, compounded with the natural aging process of the body and typical weakening of the organs to begin with, is definitely a deadly combination.  You can also see why weight control becomes more of a life and death issue, especially as we get older and why maintenance is emphasized.

What BMI constitutes obesity usually?  A BMI of 30 or over puts you in a high risk category.  This means that your fat ratio to your height and your weight is too high, and that your weight in relation to your height is too high, which puts you at higher risk for heart failure.  The BMI is a good measure for you to look at when assessing your overall weight goals, and it actually is included with the Wii Fit game that you can buy for the Wii gaming system.  My boyfriend and I will check our BMI with this nifty little device every so often, making sure that we are staying within a certain healthy range, just for good measure.