Here's a surprise: 51% of overweight individuals (36 million people) have relatively normal levels of blood pressure and cholesterol. And what's more surprising, is that one-third of obese adults are also in a healthy range when it comes to these health indicators.
And - perhaps most interesting of all, one-fourth the adults who fell in the recommended weight range showed unhealthy results on these same health markers. This means that at least 16 million people in the normal weight range are at risk for heart problems.
These findings were from a research study reported in the August 2008 Archives of Internal Medicine. One of the researchers, Dr. Judith Wylie-Rosett, said that for people who are overweight but do not have these elevated risks for heart disease, being overweight may be important only from a cosmetic perspective. For women, this cosmetic perspective has a lot of meaning. How a woman looks is tied up with her self-image, self-esteem, and feelings of attractiveness.
So maybe you are part of the 51% of people who are overweight but don't have those health risk factors. Even so, most important from a psychological point of view - are you driven to overeating by emotional issues that need addressing?
