When your skin begins to fold
Weight loss is still the desire of many people and will continue to be so for as long as they live. There is no end to weight gain as there is no end to human growth.
Certain aspects of growth stall as we age but not all of them will see an end till death puts the final peg in the hole.
We stop growing tall at a point in life.
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This leaves the body with no other option than to channel the portion of food it would have used to make us tall into making us fat. It adds on to what adds flesh to the bones hence too much energy is available to make us add on weight.
Reducing food intake to reasonable limits will help the body in growing or adding fat/ weight the right way. This will prevent excessive fatness and weight gain.
That is the ideal situation, when one is able to prevent excessive weight gain. Good enough. But in the real life situation, people are unable to do this so they gain weight.
The best time to lose weight is when the weight begins building up. That is when you begin to see your face becoming more chubby and rounded.
When you begin to fit beautifully into your shirts, dresses or kaba and slit. When your husband or your wife begins to point out the fact that your body size and shape is changing.
This is the point at which your skin begins to fold, especially around the sides of the belly (lover’s pouch). Unfortunately, this is the time that most people feel that they are living well. This is the time that society sees you as best fits.
T
hey often see you as becoming affluent and also being well taken care of by your spouse. The man is touted as being able to bring more money home. The woman is praised for her culinary skills. This perception must change if we want to build a healthy society.
In case you find yourself in this seemingly comfortable state, I want you to note that the praises being poured on you are rather for the wrong reasons. You are being praised for carrying an excess weight that can lead to many sickness and disabilities.
Imaging someone carrying a bomb which can explode in the next few minutes being praised for doing so! Act now so you prevent the weight from getting to a worse state.
Do not allow the folds on your belly and sides to multiply in ripples.
Often it gets too late at this point to start losing weight. It is also very frustrating. This is one of the reasons why overweight and obese people clamour for shortcut methods to lose weight.
It is even worse if some lifestyle diseases find their way into this puzzle.
Though it is not impossible for anyone to lose weight, the success of any weight loss venture depends on the choice of method. Lifestyle changes (diet and exercise) though difficult to make, have proven to be the best way to lose weight.
These changes deliver steady and sustainable weight loss which brings long lasting relief to practitioners.
I must stress that some of the healthiest people in the world are those who fight tooth and nail to lose weight as soon as they see it coming.
They are so much aware of themselves that they notice any undesirable increment in their weight and work hard to lose it. This is what I wish for everyone.
Let us all be interested in the appropriateness of the food we eat. Not everything goes. Stop saying that I eat what is available. You can change that narrative by making sure that only healthy and well balanced meals are available, especially at home.
If you eat what someone chooses for you, you are simply alluding to that fact that you want those people to determine how healthy you are. You are also saying that; if the food will make you ill, so be it. This is a bad way to treat oneself. Treat yourself well.
Employers have to take interest in the quality of the food that they provide for their employees. These people spend so much time with you so feed them well. Besides they make money for you so spend some money to ensure that they are being fed well.
Be consistent with exercise once you decide to lose weight. Start slow with activities you can perform any day; rain or shine. Be consistent with exercise since this has proven to make weight loss more effective.
Mind you, if you walk 30 minutes, five days a week, you will manage your weight far better than the one who exercises for two hours, only once a week.
Finally brethren; see help from qualified dieticians in your weight loss endeavour. It makes a real difference to choose professionals to assist in making you look and feel healthy.
The writer is a dietican at The Trust Hospital & Clinics. He is a member of the Ghana Dietetic Association and author of “Answers for your diet” and
“Eating to prevent and manage lifestyle diseases.”
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