All these years, you’ve always thought that you were a size 10. Even though your pants seemed tighter in recent days, you dismissed it as having indulged in too much festive eating. After all, your body weight had not increased significantly. Then one day, the unthinkable happens. You try on a pair of size 10 jeans and look at your reflection in the fitting room mirror in horror – the pants won’t zip up. Without realising it, your waist has grown out of shape. Will you be resigned to wearing empire-cut dresses forever? Or is there still a chance for you to squeeze into those jeans?
Your waist and health
Having a lean waist isn’t only an issue of vanity. It is also a very important factor in predicting your risk for cardiovascular disease. It has long been known that a person’s weight-for-height – measured as Body Mass Index (BMI) – is a strong indicator for diseases. The BMI is calculated by taking your weight (kg) divided by your height squared (m2). A BMI above 25 indicates that you may be overweight, while BMI above 30 indicates obesity. Having this BMI means that you are at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as high blood pressure, stroke and heart attack.
Besides calculating your BMI, you should also keep track of your waist circumference, as this is an indicator of how much abdominal fat you have. Research has shown that it is not merely how much fat you have, but where the fat is located, which has an effect on your health. Obese people who have more abdominal fat (an apple shape) are at a higher risk than people who store excess fat in their hips and thighs (a pear shape).
Abdominal fat is associated with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that increases the risk for heart disease and diabetes. The syndrome is diagnosed when you have at least three of the following: abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, low levels of high-density liprorotein (“good”) cholesterol, high blood pressure and increased levels of sugar in the blood. In women, a waist circumference of over 35 inches increases the risk of metabolic syndrome.
Take back your waist
It’s time to take back your waist before it gets out of control. The first thing to do is to know what your waist measurement is. If you have a basic tape measure at home, wrap it snugly around your tummy across your belly button. Now that you know what your waist circumference is, you can start keeping track of it. Exercise is one of the key factors in losing weight and staying trim. You don’t have to start on a complicated regime of competitive sports or become a top athlete. All you have to do is keep moving.
Walk at least 30 minutes a day, increase your activities of daily living, and practice strength, flexibility and balance exercises throughout the week. Go for yoga or pilates classes with a friend, or have a swim with your kids once or twice a week. These exercises will strengthen your core abdominal muscles as well as improve your posture. Eat small, frequent meals, and refrain from binge-eating or drinking. Choose plenty of fruits, vegetables and legumes (such as soy products and beans) and cut down on simple carbohydrates (although don’t cut them out completely). Your meals should also include high-quality protein, such as eggs, lean poultry, fish and lean red meat.
Finally, a little vanity never hurts. We all want to look good in our favourite clothes and that may be the best incentive to get your weight down. Have your favourite pair of jeans on hand, one that you haven’t been able to wear recently. As you start exercising and losing weight, try it on regularly so that you know how much progress you’ve been making. Also, do not fall into the trap of elastic waistbands. If you wear clothes that are easily expandable, you will not notice your increasing waistline until you are three or four sizes larger. Find clothes that fit your shape so that you know when you are getting out of shape.
Cutting the fat
A much more drastic option to the weight-loss methods above is surgery. There are many different surgical procedures for severely obese people, who cannot lose weight through conventional dietary or exercise methods. One method is to insert a gastric balloon down the oesophagus. Once inflated in your stomach, the balloon takes up space so you eat less. There are also gastric bands that can be implanted to constrict the stomach.
Two common forms of stomach-intestine surgeries are gastric and intestinal bypass surgery. These surgeries help you to lose weight by cutting 80% of the absorptive small intestine out of the digestive tract – which means that less food is absolved. Sounds like a dream come true? It isn’t. These surgical procedures are extremely invasive and traumatic, and require you to be on supplements for the rest of your life. It is not a magic bullet that immediately makes you slim and svelte as a supermodel – which is why it is only recommended as a last resort for the severely obese.
In the end, it is self-discipline, a healthy diet, regular exercise and vigilant monitoring that keeps the waist in check. Some weight gain is normal as one gets older, but that is no excuse for letting it all go downhill.
Star newspape. Feb 28, 2010
By Datuk Dr Nor Ashikin Mokhtar
