There are many people who neglect to take good care of themselves because of their busy schedules at work or school, familial responsibilities, and other reasons. They eat takeout and fast-food often because they cannot find the time to prepare and cook meals after a long day at the office. They also most likely choose to spend their days off at home, just sitting and relaxing, as they do not have the drive to do anything else.
If you are in a similar situation, you might end up gaining weight. This kind of lifestyle is unhealthy, and over time, it can lead to various health complications that can significantly lower your quality of life. For optimal health and wellbeing, you should be vigilant about your weight.
The following are signs that you watch out for to know if you should start losing weight:
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Your clothes don’t fit you anymore
Has your favorite pair of pants become tighter around the waist? Have your tops become too snug and is making breathing a bit difficult? When you look in a mirror, have you noticed how you seem to have developed some belly bulge?
Clothes that don’t fit are the most obvious sign of weight gain. Once your outfits start feeling like a constrictor snake, preventing you from freely moving your arms, legs, and the rest of your body, you should take a step back and assess what you have been doing in terms of your diet, physical activities, and other habits that may have contributed to the extra pounds and fats.
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You get frequent body pains
Do your ankles hurt after walking a few thousand steps a day? Are your knees wobbly and aching after climbing up just a single flight of stairs? Have back pains started hitting you more frequently than they used to?
Because of the extra weight you carry, various parts of your body, particularly your ankles, knees, and back become more prone to pains and aches. The excess pressure that your joints and bones are subjected to causes stress, discomfort, and exhaustion, limiting your physical abilities. Over time, the wear and tear can reach the tissues and lead to severe complications.
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You feel hungry all the time
Do you eat full meals more than three times a day? Is it hard to not snack every couple of hours throughout the day? Is one serving of a particular dish not enough every time you eat, so you always ask for more until you are stuffed?
Constantly craving for food is not good for health. If you start feeling hungry all the time, even if you just ate two hours ago, this may mean that your body is not getting the essential vitamins and minerals it needs to properly carry out all its functions. Until you get into a healthy and balanced diet routine, your body will not be satisfied and you will keep eating and eating, causing you to gain weight.
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You start to snore at night
Has your partner confronted you about your snoring at night, something that has never happened before? Are you having a tough time getting enough sleep because you kept getting woken up for being so noisy?
If you gain weight, you will have extra fat in different areas of the body, such as your neck. This extra fat puts extra pressure around your airway, narrowing it and causing breathing problems and snoring. If not dealt with right away, this can lead to more relationship conflicts, and develop into serious sleeping problems and other health complications, such as a heart attack.
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You have no energy to do simple physical tasks
Have you started to hate the 10-minute walk you have been doing for years to reach the bus stop? Has your number of rejected friends’ invitations to do outdoorsy stuff increased? Would you rather spend a good amount of your lunch break waiting for the elevators than taking the stairs?
Packing extra fat in the body can negatively impact your physical health. It can reduce your energy levels, stopping you from doing the things that you used to do, such as cleaning your house, doing laundry, and other household chores. It can make you feel tired and exhausted easily, causing you to run of breath, feel muscle soreness and joint pains, and other discomforts, even after only a few minutes of mild physical tasks.
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You experience heart palpitations
Do you sometimes feel your heart beating faster for just a few seconds? Does it feel like it is working harder even if you are not doing anything strenuous? Do the palpitations extend to your general chest area, or even your throat and neck?
A heart palpitation is a condition in which your heart feels like it is pounding harder, racing so fast, or fluttering. In most cases, it is not something that you should be worried about, as it just goes away on its own, without having to go to a doctor or take treatment medications. However, sometimes, it can be a symptom of an underlying health problem, such as heart disease, which can be caused by weight gain and poor nutrition.
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Your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are high
Did you go to your doctor and learn that your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are high? Have you started experiencing some common symptoms of high blood pressure, such as irregular heartbeat, severe headaches, chest pains, breathing difficulties, and vision problems, and a number of warning signs of high cholesterol, such as dizziness, pain in the left side of the chest, slurred speech, and pain in the lower legs?
Normal blood pressure levels are around 120 over 80 to 140 over 90, while normal total cholesterol levels are less than 200 milligrams per deciliter. If due to your weight gain, your vitals are higher than these, you have to talk to your doctor about how to treat the problem before some serious complications kick in.
