Posts Tagged ‘Obese’

What kind of diet should be followed if the person is underweight ?

To gain weight and be healthy, you need to consume more calories every day from healthy foods and choose the right types of exercise. Being underweight can result from eating disorders, chronic diseases.
While being overweight or obese is a well-known risk factor for chronic diseases, being too thin may also increase a person’s risk of dying from diseases such as heart failure and cancer.

- Increase the daily intake by of calories. Remember the weight you gain should be a healthy combination of muscle and fat.
- Make sure that the diet includes adequate protein. So while you have the liberty of including at least one food high in carbohydrates, fat and sugar (chocolates, pastries, cakes, pizza, burgers and sandwiches) daily, you will need to balance these with healthy food such as cheese, curd, pulses, chicken, fish, nuts and seeds.
- Eat raisins/dates, fresh fruit juices and energy dense fruits such as banana, mango and chikoo which are usually forbidden.
- Add these in your daily diet and regular meals or as snacks between meals. Increase the additional intake gradually to avoid gastric discomfort.
- Eat five to six meals i.e. three main meals along with two snacks and a glass of milk at bedtime regularly.
- Add a small amount of flax seed oil and some psyllium powder to add some omega-3 essential fatty acids and extra fiber.
- You should not skip any meal.
- Eat at meal times even if you are not hungry.
- Make dishes which you enjoy. Sit down at table for your meals.
- Make the dining area lively by putting plants, flowers and colorful pictures.
- Put some soothing music.
- Relax and eat your meal properly.
- Increase the speed of your eating but chew the food well.
- Start having vitamin and mineral supplements after consulting your doctor.
- Exercise regularly and become more active. It will help in building up your appetite and aid digestion.
- Join a gym and train under expert guidance 2-3 times a week.
- Resistance training exercises such as lifting weights will help to increase your muscle size.
- It can take a while to gain the weight you need, but be patient and continue to choose healthy foods until you reach your goal weight.

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Following a low carb, high fat diet bad for health

There are time periods when different types of diets become popular; for example, even though it may not seem logical, a low-carb and high-fat diet is believed by millions to be a pretty effective diet to lose weight. Further, other diets emphasize eating lean and controlling your food intake, something that is not very easy to follow on a regular basis. The low-carb, high-fat diet gives you a lot of good stuff to eat, and are touted as diets that promote rapid loss of weight. A recent research however questions the effectiveness of this diet, and also lead to a higher risk of cardio-vascular diseases; this leads to a further increase of risks when you consider that obese and diabetes afflicted people already have a higher risk of heart problems and blood pressure (link to article):

“High-fat diets have become popular because they seemingly promote more rapid weight loss and because of their palatability,” said Hunter. “However, we now have proof that they do not help people lose weight any faster than more conventional diets, and the potential negatives of increased cardiovascular risks far outweigh the potential positives,” added Hunter.
“The worldwide obesity pandemic is a major public health concern and strongly linked to rises in diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” said Hunter. “Advocating low-carbohydrate high-fat diets as a weapon against obesity and diabetes, health professionals could be contributing to a dangerous rise in cardiovascular disease,” warned Hunter.

Obesity linked to cancer

Obesity has been acknowledged to be a medical problem that can increase the risk of a number of diseases and afflictions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases including heart problems. But the link to cancer is not clear. However research suggests that a high level of obesity causes changes in the level of hormones in the body that in turn is linked to a growth in the chances of developing cancer, as well as other factors that are also linked to a higher risk of cancer (link to article):

Excess body fat makes a person vulnerable to cancer by increasing the amount of hormones like estrogen circulating in the body and disrupting how the body processes insulin, which is linked to higher risk of cancer. It also triggers low-grade inflammation in the body, which is increasingly being found to play a role in cancer.
Weight gain after a cancer diagnosis is also likely to affect the outcome, say researchers. “An increasing number of studies suggest that regular physical activity improves cancer survival, even among survivors who are overweight or obese,” the Independent quoted AICR researchers as saying.