featured image of blog

HOW DOES BEING OVERWEIGHT HARM HEART

Dr. B. Hygriv Rao, Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The heart is the engine of our body. As a car needs a good engine to run on, our body needs a good heart to function perfectly. The heart performs the vital function of pumping blood to all organs of the body. We need to maintain good heart health to live long and strong. Heart health is maintained by eating a low-fat diet and exercising regularly.

Morbidity and a sedentary lifestyle wreck our heart health to a great extent. The more your body weight, the less your heart functions. The size of our heart is about the size of our own fist. If you become fat the heart needs to pump in more blood, for example, a Maruti Alto just requires an 800cc engine to run it a sports utility vehicle requires a 1400 cc engine to run it, the more fat you grow your heart chambers may enlarge to pump more blood. Losing weight helps cut the risk of heart diseases by almost a quarter. The ideal weight helps the heart pump the right amount of blood to all the organs. If our waistline keeps expanding it means that we are gaining fat near our vital organs. The more the fat in our body, the higher the risk of cardiac problems, like heavy breathing, high heart rate, high blood pressure or diabetes which again cause heart problems. Fat build up in the heart leads to blood clots in the arteries or thickening of arterial walls. It is very important just not to lose weight but to maintain the weight loss. Weight loss goals should be practical and no fad diets will serve the purpose but may cause severe problems. A weight loss of 2 to 2.5 kilos a month can be achieved by walking, cycling, aerobics, and swimming. Obesity or being overweight lead to complications such as lipids, bad cholesterol build up in the body which may lead to coronary heart diseases. For Women, the waist circumference should not be above 35 inches and for men, it should not be more than 40 inches. The ideal BMI or body mass index should be between 18.5 to 24.9 for both men and women.


We have the best team of preventive cardiologists at KIMS who guide you and help you lose weight to maintain your heart health. Your improvement is closely monitored. Our nutrition experts in consultation with your preventive cardiologists suggest an ideal diet plan and exercise regimen to prevent cardiac attacks or heart diseases.

BOOK AN APPOINTMENT

FIND A DOCTOR

Footer Loading...