ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- According to journal of the American medical association, obesity rates in the u-s have stabilized, but the collective American waist line is still ever increasing. Stress, pollutants, poor sleep, hormones, you name it…all could be reasons. But your love handles aren’t just cosmetically challenging, they could indicate a much bigger problem.
“Obesity has been very, very challenging in the United States,” Priscilla Hollander, MD, told Ivanhoe.
Two of every three men in the US are considered overweight or obese, and the rates are even higher for women. Containing one of the highest percentages of obese people in the world, the United States spends a staggering $117 billion in related medical expenses each year.
If your waistline is measuring more than 35 inches for women or greater than 40 inches for men, there’s a chance you’re holding on to a potentially dangerous amount of visceral fat. This is fat that accumulates around your abdominal organs. It is strongly linked to increasing your risk of developing heart disease, certain cancers, and even dementia!
So what can you do about it? This is not fat that you can shed by simply toning up your abdominal muscles. Those crunches and sit ups alone won’t work. The only surefire solution for targeting this kind of fat, and improving your overall health is losing the extra weight through a wholesome diet and regular physical exercise. Activities like walking or similar cardio combined with a regular strength-training regime.
Obesity has been cited as a contributing factor for up to 400 thousand deaths in the United States per year, and related health care costs even exceed that of those associated with smoking! These costs account for up to 12 percent of the nation’s total health care costs every year.
