Overweight

With each passing year, doctors and researchers discover additional reasons for being overweight pose increasing risks to individuals’ overall health. Being overweight is defined as having more body fat in relation to your height than is recommended.

Overweight

Health risks with a high BMI value

Carrying extra fat on the body leads to an increased risk of a wide range of conditions, including:

Type 2 diabetes

Being overweight can cause your cells to become resistant to insulin.

Cholesterol

Being overweight tends to lead to an increase in cholesterol levels.

Hypertension

With a larger body size, your heart needs to work harder to pump blood throughout your body, which means a higher blood pressure.

Heart disease

Heart disease that is often associated with being overweight is:

  • High blood pressure
  • High blood sugar
  • High cholesterol
  • High pulse

Stroke

Stroke is often associated with weighing more than what is considered to be within normal values.

Cancer

It is not entirely known why being overweight can increase the risk of cancer. It is suspected that diets and sedentary lifestyles that lead to obesity may contribute to the development of certain cancers.

Arthritis

Extra weight on joints and cartilage can cause injury and osteoarthritis, which is one of the most common rheumatic diseases. Some characteristics of osteoarthritis are stiff and sore joints.

Pregnancy problems

Being overweight during pregnancy can lead to an increased risk of pregnancy diabetes.

Are there benefits of being overweight?

Surprisingly, there are some potential benefits associated with being overweight, for example::

Lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis

For men, a small excess weight appears to be linked to a reduced risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis, which is also called arthritis and is an inflammatory disease.

Stronger immune system

The fat stores around the organs can communicate favorably with the immune system, giving a stronger immune system.

Reduced risk of dementia

It is suspected that extra fat stores can help prevent dementia.

Tolerance

People with higher weight and thicker fat layers have better resistance to cold temperatures compared with slimmer individuals.

Famine

In the case of hunger, the body’s fat is converted into energy, which means that overweight people can survive longer without food.

However, despite these few benefits, it is an emerging health risk to weigh more than is considered normal. Keeping an optimal weight is always more healthy.

It is vital to maintain a healthy weight to avoid a variety of potential health conditions and diseases, including those mentioned above. Despite some health benefits, being overweight is mainly linked to increased health risks and unhealthy conditions.

The classification overweight lies between normal weight and obesity class 1. If the weight increases further, the risk of an obesity level 1 classification rises, while if weight loss is achieved, then the BMI can end up at normal level.