Obesity has always been an important public health issue in the United States. Surprisingly 31 percent of the adult population in the U.S. is obese. If a person is overweight, he can have several health problems and develop cardiovascular diseases, increasing other heart-related issues. About 659,000 people in the United States die from heart disease each year. That’s one in every four1.
Healthy weight loss can improve heart and vascular health, lower blood pressure, boost heart function, and improve metabolism. By losing weight, you can reduce your heart’s workload. As you shed pounds, there’s less fat lurking around, forming plaque that clogs your coronary arteries, causing a heart attack.
Correlation of Weight Loss and Heart Diseases
As a person’s risk for heart disease is associated with weight, heart diseases and weight loss are correlated. Obese people are at higher risk for this condition. Medical experts say being overweight is a major cause for both coronary heart disease and heart attack, which considerably increases your risk for developing heart disease, especially if you have plenty of abdominal fat2.
How Does Obesity Cause Heart Problems?
Arteries supplying blood to the heart get narrow and results in heart diseases. This process is known as atherosclerosis. Fatty deposits, known as plaque build-up on the inner side of the artery walls, narrow the space through which blood can flow to the heart. These fatty deposits can be stable or unstable. Many tough fatty deposits narrow the arteries, which causes pain and discomfort resulting in less blood reaching the heart; this condition is called angina.
Unstable fatty deposits are swollen and contain a thin cap that develops a crack; hence the blood meets the fatty deposits. The arteries are blocked due to blood clots formed when the blood tries to seal the crack. It stops blood flow to the heart, damages the heart cells, and cuts off its oxygen supply. This condition of the heart is called a heart attack.
Effect of Weight Loss on Heart Health
Losing weight decreases heart rate and lower blood pressure and cholesterol level, leading to improved heart functioning.
- Lowers Blood Pressure
Reducing weight results in lowering blood pressure. According to recent research, weight loss can lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and a person can get rid of hypertension. By losing 20 pounds, you can drop your systolic pressure 5-20 points, eventually enhancing heart health.
- Decreases Heart Rate
If a person has a lower heart rate, it shows his heart is working well. When the heart rate is lower, the heart pumps more blood and maintains a regular beat with every contraction. On the contrary, a higher heart rate means the heart is overworked to pump blood.
- Lowers Cholesterol Level
Being overweight can increase cholesterol levels of the blood, a leading cause of heart disease these days. If a person is obese and eats many unhealthy foods like baked goods, processed meats, and fast food, he can be at risk. Reducing weight could lower your cholesterol level, which helps balance the fats in your bloodstream, and as a result, your heart functioning gets better.
Eat Smartly to Reduce Weight
A healthy diet is beneficial to your health and helps you reduce your weight, which decreases your risk of heart diseases. Paying attention to how and where you eat food. This practice is known as mindful eating. It enables you to enjoy the food you eat and maintain a balanced weight. Here are some ways by which you can reduce your weight and achieve a healthy lifestyle3.
- Chew the food properly while eating. This habit helps you reduce weight, as it signals to your brain at the right time that you are full, which prevents overeating.
- Don’t get distracted by turning on a TV, laptop, or mobile phone.
- Eating food by sitting down at a table and being attentive to the food, and enjoying the experience of having a meal.
- You should make good choices of food that give proper nutrition to your bodies and make you feel fuller for hours, not minutes.
Eating Plenty of Fiber
The plant-based carbohydrates that are not digested in the small intestine are called dietary fibers. If you want to reduce weight, you must include plenty of fibers in your diet.
Foods rich in fiber include:
- vegetables and fruits
- nuts and seeds
- peas, beans, and pulses
- whole-grain breakfast cereals, whole-wheat pasta, whole-grain bread, oats, barley, and rye
Choose Protein for Breakfast
Proteins are a great source for regulating appetite hormones and help you feel fuller. This is mainly caused by decreasing the hunger hormone and increasing the satiety hormones. According to the research, breakfast rich in protein sources results in long-lasting hormonal effects.
Foods rich in proteins include eggs, oats, nuts, seed butter, quinoa porridge, sardines, and chia seed pudding4.
Reduce Intake of Refined Carbohydrates and Sugars
Modern diet has a high content of added sugars directly linked to obesity. Most of this added sugar occurs in beverages rather than food. Refined carbohydrates, found in processed foods, contain less fiber and other important nutrients. White rice, bread, and pasta are included in these foods. These foods quickly digest and rapidly converts into glucose. Excessive glucose enters the bloodstream and aggravates the insulin hormone, resulting in fat storage in the adipose tissue. An increase in adipose tissues is the major cause of gaining weight5.
Take A Good Night’s Sleep
Studies show that getting less than 5 to 6 hours of sleep per night is one of the major causes of the increase in weight. Poor quality and insufficient sleep slow down the process of metabolism in which the body converts calories to energy. Slow metabolism tends the body stores unused energy as fat cells, promoting insulin production and increasing fat storage6.
Manage Your Stress and Anxiety Levels
Stress affects negatively on the body as it triggers the release of adrenaline and cortisol, which are known as stress hormones. These hormones decrease a person’s appetite. However, cortisol remains in the bloodstream for a longer period when under constant stress, which increases the need and potential to gain weight7.
There are some methods given below for managing your stress levels.
- yoga and meditation
- breathing and relaxation techniques
- spending some time outdoors, for example walking or gardening
The Bottom Line
This article illustrates the importance of weight loss to prevent heart-related diseases mainly caused by obesity. People who are obese are considered at higher risk of getting heart diseases. Adopting a lifestyle that lets you healthily lose weight can greatly improve your heart health and speeds up your metabolism. What’s more, Oxyburn, a potential weight loss supplement can also help you lose weight healthily to prevent heart diseases.
- https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db103.pdf
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1016/j.joa.2017.07.005
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019566631000365X?via%3Dihub
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4263815/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248126844_The_Cambridge_World_History_of_Food_Edited_by_K_F_Kiple_and_K_C_Ornelas
- https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/97/11/3876/2836415
- https://www.jmolbiochem.com/index.php/JmolBiochem/article/view/194
