HEALTH BENEFITS OF LOSING YOUR WEIGHT QUICKLY
Losing weight can improve your health. Reminders of the aesthetic benefits of losing weight bombard us constantly. But the importance of weight control goes beyond appearance.
Serious health risks are likely to be developed by people who are overweight or obese and they include heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers.
Specifically overweight and obesity tends to raise total blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels as well as lower HDL-cholesterol levels. Your chance of developing metabolic syndrome increases if you carry excess weight around your waist.
Weight control is a powerful weapon in the struggle to reduce the risk of these health problems. Total cholesterol and triglycerides are lowered by losing weight. It also decreases the risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. To reap the benefits, you do not necessarily have to lose large amounts of weights.
Studies have shown that even muscle weight loss can lower blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels and improve conditions related to high blood pressure and diabetes.
Of course, this is true largely if the extra weight is from fat.
HOW CHOLESTEROL WORKS
High levels of cholesterol are a risk factor for coronary heart disease. What we donâEUR(TM)t often hear is the important fact that some cholesterol is vital to human life.
Cholesterol is a fat like compound that belongs to a class of molecules called steroids. It is found in many foods, in our blood stream and in all your bodyâEUR(TM)s cells.
Cholesterol is essential for:
1. Formation and maintenance of cell membranes (helps the cell to resist changes in temperature and protects and insulates nerve fibers).
2. Formation of sex hormones(progesterone, testosterone, estradiol, cortisol)
3. Production of bile salts which helps to digest food.
4. Conversion into vitamin D in the skin when exposed to sunlight.
A series of complicated biochemical reactions results in the formation of cholesterol.
Most of the bodyâEUR(TM)s cholesterol is manufactured in the liver. Cholesterol, though essential should be taking in moderation. You can resort to plant based cholesterol. It can be gotten from plants (coconuts, olives e.t.c)
Carrier molecules that make up cholesterol are made of protein and are called apoproteins.
About 85% of your blood cholesterol level is endogenous, which means it is produced by your body. The other 15% or so comes from an external source. Your dietary cholesterol originates from meat, poultry, fish, sea food.
It is possible for some people to have low blood cholesterol even when these people eat foods high in cholesterol.