Assuming you stick to a particular diet for long enough to lose weight, and excluding some of the wackier options, what sort of health effects can you expect?
A BMI of 25 to 25.9 makes you overweight, whereas a BMI of 30 to 39.9 makes you obese and a BMI greater than 40 puts you into the severely obese category. Some people with a high muscle mass and little or no excess fat could be defined as obese according to BMI, so waist circumference may be a better indicator of excess fat; values higher than 94cm (37in) for men and 80cm (31.5in) for women are likely to lead to obesity-related health problems.
Obesity is a condition associated with inflammation of adipose tissue. It can lead to increased risk of a number of conditions, including diabetes, metabolic syndrome, coronary heart disease and certain types of cancer, so it’s clear that apart from the obvious advantages of weight loss, such as being able to wear a bikini on the beach, there are health benefits.
Many studies bear this out. For example the functions of natural killer cells, the first defence of the body against malignant cells, are considerably impaired in obesity, but their functionality can be reactivated by fat mass reduction. Another study showed that reductions in adiposity led to increases in circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.
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