Anjali Mukherjee

There is an interesting observation that I have made and today I want to share that with you…

In my 23yrs of watching overweight people become slim I have realized that women in general above the age of 35 do not lose weight easily. They toil in the gyms, they are seen taking brisk walks in parks, they starve themselves through the day hoping to eat ‘well’ at night along with their family but seldom lose weight at the pace at which they would want to. When it comes to losing weight, women stand at a disadvantage compared to men, thanks to their higher body fat percentage and lower muscle mass. They tend to accumulate fat faster than men and lose it far more slowly. Unfair to the fair sex isn’t it? The same is observed in the animal kingdom. As if to endorse my observations I came across this study reported in the TOI which said ‘Two out of three women in urban India, and one in three in rural India above the age of 35 are overweight’; which means two thirds of women above 35 years of age in urban India and one third’s in rural India are overweight. The study also revealed that half of the urban women (above age of 35) and slightly less than half of rural India lead an inactive life.

Almost 85% of woman in urban Calcutta were found to be obese specially around the waist and that diabetes was second highest in Calcutta (13% in woman above 35 yrs of age) presided by 26% in Kochi. These findings are alarming.

As we all know that being overweight makes one prone to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure etc. It is important to understand that the health benefits of being trim and healthy are far greater than eating unwisely.

I am distinctly worried about the overfed and undernourished state of women population both in urban and rural India. Almost 96% urban women & 75% rural women were found to have at least one risk factor to heart disease in this study conducted by a few doctors from AIIMS.

So what should women do? Obviously handle it as they handle so many other more complicated issues in their lives. All that she needs to do is to consider herself important enough to ‘want’ to be healthy… to focus on herself for a change…to cook some healthful meals which ‘she’ wants to eat rather than eat leftovers from the fancy meals cooked for the family

So here’s a token solution for all those who want to lose weight.

SOME EFFECTIVE AND PRATICAL TIPS FOR LOSING WEIGHT:

• Begin eating at least one meal in the day - raw.
• Limit your oil intake to 2-3 tsp a day.
• Finish your dinner by 7.00pm and make sure it is light.
• Increase fiber in your diet to about 30-35 grams in a day
• Begin talking a brisk walk for 30-40 minutes everyday.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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