I'm officially obese!

Ok, so I need to lose about 50lbs! I weight 224lbs (on 1/1/2011) which means I am officially obese! My ideal weight is about 175lb, so I need to lose about 50lbs!

Obese? Let's think about that for a second! Here is the definition of obesity taken from Wikipedia - for the full Wikipedia page look here - wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity

"Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems.[1][2] Body mass index (BMI), a measurement which compares weight and height, defines people as overweight (pre-obese) if their BMI is between 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2, and obese when it is greater than 30 kg/m2.[3]

Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.[2] Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility, although a few cases are caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness. Evidence to support the view that some obese people eat little yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism is limited; on average obese people have a greater energy expenditure than their thin counterparts due to the energy required to maintain an increased body mass"

There are some scary words in there!

• Reduced life expectancy
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Osteoarthritis

I can tell you now that Cancer scares the S**T out of me! I never actually thought that being obese could increase my chances of cancer! I don't smoke and don't really drink, so assumed that I was in a low risk group!

To be honest my main motivation for losing weight was my body image and how people perceptions of being overweight, but these are secondary to the health benefits! I have 2 young sons and the thought of not seeing them have their own children etc is a scary!

I am really motivated now, I started a low carb diet yesterday. Once I have been doing it for a few days I will let you know how effective it is!

See if you are obese here - http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/