Why a Healthy Weight Is Important If your BMI or waist circumference is above the healthy range you’ re at increased risk of diabetes, Cardiovascular disease and certain cancers such as colon, prostate and breast cancer. You’re also more likely to experience joint problems and back pain, and may find you become breathless and have difficulty sleeping. The more weight you gain, the more severe these problems may become. Losing weight depends on energy balance. If you consume more energy from food and drink than you burn through maintaining your body’ s functions and physical activity, you’ll gain weight. Cutting calories by reducing how much you eat and drink, and increasing how much physicalactivity you do will make you lose weight. If you reduce your daily energy intake to around 500 calories (kcal) below your energy requirements ,you’ll lose about 0.5kg a week. This is a sensiblerate of weight loss. Before you start making changes to your lifestyle, it’ s important to ask yourself if this is the right time. The reasons you decide to lose weight will be personal to you. You might find you’ re more successful if you choose a relatively calm time in your life to start. Whatever you decide, make sure you’ re feeling positive and ready for the challenge. Set achievable goals. Aim to lose about five to ten percent of your initial body weight over a few months. Research shows this kind of weight loss is achievable and will improve your health. Once you’ ve reached your goal, congratulate yourself and set another five per cent weight loss target. This way, you’ll feel good about achieving small steps, rather than getting clown because it’ s taking you so long to lose a large amount of weight. You may lose more weight in some weeks than in others, but as long as your weight continues to decrease overall there’ s no need to worry. If your weight stays the same for a week or two, don’ t aband on all you’ ve achieved. Instead, focus on the amount and type of food you’ re eating andtry to be a little more active. Which is not the risk you may take if you have an unhealthy weight
A.Diabetes and cardiovascular disease B.Joint problems and back pain C.Breathless and difficulty sleeping D.Wider waist circumference