The dangers of being obese
People living in today’s fast-paced world often neglect their health and this can lead to serious life-threatening results.
Dietician, Anke van Waveren, discusses the dangerous impact obesity can have on people’s lives.
“Obesity can lead to chronic diseases due to the pressure the extra weight has on your body,” says Anke. The chronic diseases include heart illnesses, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, osteoarthritis, gout, and several types of cancer.
“There are many reasons for people becoming obese, one of the main reasons is people who lived an active lifestyle while at school but are not as active anymore due to being at work.”
She explains that people who were active in school usually eat the same amount of food after school but because they are not that active anymore they don’t use the right amount of energy to burn their fat intake.
Van Waveren adds that another cause of obesity is people who work in a stressful environment which leads to them turning to food to help cope with the stress. Bad diet choices also lead to obesity.
“People can use the body mass index (BMI) method to measure if they are a healthy weight for their height.”
A BMI result of 18,5 to 24,9 indicates you are healthy, 25 to 29,9 shows you are overweight, 30 to 39,9 means you are obese and 40 or above means you are severely obese. There are a number of things an obese person should look at before training and using diet plans. “The first step is to have your blood tested to see if you don’t already have a chronic disease,” says van Waveren.
If you do have a chronic disease, you must get the proper medication and treatment before training.
It is important to see if your heart can cope with the training and diet plans. “You have to see your local dietician, personal trainer and biokineticist to use the right training methods and diet plans.”
She and biokineticists Lizanne Dreyer also have a programme called Weight 2 Go which aims to help children live a healthier lifestyle.
The programme has a playful approach which aims to achieve weight management, nutritional informative sessions, decrease screen time, increase activity time, instil a healthy lifestyle and make exercise fun for children so they can live healthy lifestyles from the get-go.
It is aimed at children from Gr R to Gr 5 and interested parents can contact them at zestbio@mweb.co.za or dietician.anke@gmail.com or (015) 296 0434.
calvyn@nmgroup.co.za
