OBESITY- WHAT TO LOSE AND HOW


Our body weight can primarily be divided into 3 components namely -bones, lean tissue and fat. One should understand that all of them are equally important components of our body and should be present in proportion.

-Muscles are concerned with the movements of our body; they are made up of proteins. There are other structural and functional proteins like collagen, hemoglobin etc. which make up our body.

-Fats on the other hand act as an insulator, they prevent loss of heat from the body, they provide mechanical protection to vital organs like the heart, they are also required in the manufacture of some steroids and hormones that help regulate proper growth and maintenance of tissues in the body.

Some of us believe that we are overweight but we have more muscle mass or there is water retention.

To identify the exact amount of fat and edema ( water retention) in your body, the most accurate method is to do a DEXA Scan. A DEXA scan is something that even athletes taking part in Olympics use.

It becomes important to understand why you should lose the useless & potentially harmful fat, and not the essential protein or muscle.

Our body possesses stores of glucose and glycogen. When we starve we lose the stored glucose and glycogen within our body, which usually requires a week to get exhausted. In doing so we end up losing our muscles; they are the ones to be used up first. Fats are reserved as the last source of energy and are only used after your glycogen stores are over.

We have been frequently asked by some people whether their bone weight is more than normal or does it vary so much as to create difference in an individual’s weight. In an adult, the skeleton comprises around 13% of the total body weight. Of this the Bone mineral count varies from not less than 1800 grams in very weal bones to around 3300 grams in very strong bones. A difference of not more than 2 kgs .Phew! In case your bone weight is more than normal it is usually only a few hundred grams, so it never really about the bone weight.

Always make sure you lose the right stuff when attempting to lose weight, because losing the wrong component is surely not affordable to your body.