Osteoarthritis

Five years ago Jean Gott, then 67, fell off a ladder, breaking her left leg. "Even after the fracture healed, I was in pain for two years," she remembers. "It hurts even to stand to do housework. I'd developed osteoarthritis in my knees." At 195 pounds, Gott had been trying to lose weight for years. Determined to take some pressure off her knees, she began a low-calorie diet and lost ten pounds. At this point, she says, "My pain was gone." The change enabled Gott to walk a mile a day. Over the next year and a half, she took off another 17 pounds. She says her knees remain pain-free. Doctors confirm that being even moderately overweight increases the pain of arthritis in weight-bearing joints, especially the hip and knees. Says Dr. Roland Moskowitz, professor of medicine at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, "For every pound you are overweight, you put three to five pounds of extra weight on each knee as you walk." A ten-pound loss, therefore, takes 30 to 50 pounds of extra pressure off your knees. Studies also suggest that heavier people are more likely to develop osteoarthritis. Most convincing is research on osteoarthritis of the knee -- a condition six times than in lean people, and particularly common in overweight women. Dr. David Felson, professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine, studied nearly 800 women over a decade, tracking their weight and the onset of osteoarthritis in their knees. He found that those who lost weight -- an average of 11 pounds -- were 50 percent less likely to develop osteoarthritis of the knees.

Low Energy Levels

“Imagine carrying around a ten – pound sack of groceries all day,” says Dr. Susan Yanovski of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “Extra weight on your body tires you the same way.” Four years ago Scott Talbot, a 36-year-old businessman, weighed 195 pounds, felt sluggish and wanted to slim down. His energy level went up after he started dieting and exercising. “I began to feel good about the way my clothes fit and the way I looked,” Talbot says. “Once I saw some improvement, it psyched me up. I wanted to keep going.” Ultimately Talbot lost 45 pounds, and he’s kept that off for three years. “We find that as people’s body images get better, they walk and act with more confidence,” says Kelly Brownell, professor of psychology at Yale University. “And if they have more weight to lose, they approach that next goal with confidence.”

High Blood Pressure

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is among the top reasons people go to the doctor. Overweight adults are two to three times more likely to be hypertensive. Fortunately, the condition is as sensitive to weight loss as it is to weight gain. A ten-pound loss tends to lower blood pressure by about four points, that's significant. Several studies offer evidence that even moderate amounts of weight loss can prevent hypertension, and can help hypertensive patients lower their risk for stroke. One group of researchers, working with 975 hypertensive patients, found that 37 percent of the subjects who lost an average of ten to 12 pounds were able to safely go off their blood-pressure medication. In this unpublished study and in other trials, weight loss proved to be more effective short-term treatment than stress management or reduction of salt intake

High Cholesterol

Elevated cholesterol levels are more likely to be present in overweight people. But a number of studies indicate that for most people, moderate weight loss decreases the amount of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, the "bad" kind that clogs your arteries; conversely, it may raise the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, the "good" kind that cleans out your cardiovascular system. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, LDL cholesterol levels above 160 (under 130 is desirable) put you at high risk for suffering heart disease, heart attack or, indirectly, stroke. At the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, Dr. Harold Seim, professor of family medicine, studied 41 overweight adults in a six-week program diet and exercise. These people were still about 20 percent above their ideal weight after the program. Yet among those who lost around ten pounds, total cholesterol came down 16 percent, on average, and LDL cholesterol dropped 12 percent.