Weight & Watch

Obesity is a major health hazard with no one-size-fits-all solution. However, a long-term realistic goal and approach can tip the scales in your favour, writes Srirekha Pillai.

- Srirekha Pillai

How often has your resolution to shed that excess baggage crumbled as fast as the cookie touching your lips? For 67 year-old Saudamini Nayar, who has been on a diet for the past six months, it’s an all too familiar scenario. Weighing 114 kg, she suffers not just from morbid obesity but osteoarthritis and diabetes. Though bedridden for two years and instructed to lose another 24 kg so she can be up on her feet, Nayar cajoles her eight year old granddaughter to sneak in an extra cookie or piece of cake.

Many silvers like her are struggling to lose weight and keep it off, while coping with ailments that walk in unannounced in the wake of obesity. Indeed, obesity is a global epidemic today, cutting across all ages. In India, it has reached epidemic proportions, with the latest data indicating that over 30 million Indians are obese, a figure that is expected to double in the next five years. With incomes rising and India’s integration in global food markets, the average caloric intake per individual has been on the rise, even as physical activity has been on the decline. In fact, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 1.2 billion people worldwide are overweight, making obesity the greatest health threat of the 21st century.

With silvers, too, turning obese, the dangers of an early onset of chronic morbidity and premature mortality are all too real. “Obesity has been on the rise in the past few decades, thanks to a diet rich in sugar and carbohydrates, decrease in physical activity and rise in stress levels,” observes Sachin Jhawar, director of Apex Hospital, Jaipur. “Many silvers are living alone these days, leading to high stress.” As Jhawar points out, chronic stress can lead to increased cortisol levels, stimulating excess glucose production in the body, which gets converted and stored as fat.

Understanding obesity