ABSTRACT
Are you long past the age of baby fat? Is your body less lush than zaftig, less buff than beefy? Does your physique feature a beer barrel gut instead of six-pack abs? Would high-school classmates recognize you after 30 years? Can you face your old beau or girlfriend? There are many reasons to want to lose weight, but the superficial reasons are not why I wrote this book. Serious overweight, termed obesity, is linked to major health problems: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, blood cholesterol abnormalities (dyslipidemia), stroke, gastroesophageal reflux disease, stress urinary incontinence, sleep apnea syndrome, and gall bladder disease. Obesity has been associated with some types of cancer, aggravates arthritis of the joints and varicose veins, complicates surgery, and may contribute to infertility, fatigue, and depression. A study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2006, found that midlife obesity significantly increases the risk of hospitalization and death from congestive heart disease and diabetes, regardless of other risk factors.1
