If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that collectively we need to stop ignoring the global slide into being overweight and unhealthy and we must start to prioritise our overall health above the unnecessary stresses of our daily lives.

The pandemic has highlighted the devastating impact to metabolic health that is eventually felt as a result of being overweight or obese, both of which are mostly accidentally self-inflicted and avoidable. Both are almost always, with the right guidance, completely reversible.

Every single one of us can manage to take control of our health and wellbeing in a way that otherwise seems insurmountable by breaking a dramatic lifestyle change into small, bite-sized steps.

Despite being aware of the dangers of being obese or even ‘just’ overweight, too many of us ignore our participation in the negative health trend the whole world is following.

Nearly 2 billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, and an increasing proportion of those people are in Asia. This is a relatively recent trend in human history, but it did not just creep up on us. Nor is it unavoidable, but we need to act now.

Here are the 6 most important health benefits you can get when you start to live a healthier lifestyle if you are overweight:

1. You will be less likely to develop Type-2 Diabetes. Eating sensibly, especially when combined with a regular exercise regime has been shown to greatly reduce and even reverse your chance of getting type-2 diabetes.
2. You will have lower blood pressure and be less likely to develop high blood pressure later. As your waist size shrinks, blood pressure typically comes down in proportion if it was high to begin with. This is because waist size is a good indicator of unhealthy visceral fat.
3. You will live longer and have better life quality as you age. Being obese is associated with a higher all-cause mortality rate. This means that your chance of dying from almost any disease increases. Obese people (and super skinny people) are also more likely to suffer debilitating injuries like broken bones as they age.
4. You will have fewer cardiac issues and be less likely to die from stroke. People who exercise regularly and are not overweight tend to have a greatly reduced risk of cardiac events and a better survival rate from stroke compared to obese populations.
5. You will be more likely to remain mentally sharp as you get older. The poor handling of blood glucose that comes with being overweight or obese is associated with dementia and reduced mental clarity as we age. This is reduced by staying at a healthy weight and fat level.
6. You will have a reduced incidence and risk from severe contagious illnesses like coronaviruses and flu. Overweight and obese people often suffer from a weaker immune system and increased inflammation in their lungs. This makes it easier to catch all kinds of diseases that are airborne or transmitted by water-droplets.

You can make a difference to your own health with exercise and better food choices.

Starting by making changes to small bad habits, replacing them with small good habits.  Making continued, incremental changes to your lifestyle will mean that you are able to comfortably and sustainably change your life for the better. At ATP Personal Training we can help you with this step-by-step process to turn your health around in a positive way.