New research from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows that fewer Americans are making a concentrated effort to lose weight. That wouldn’t be the worst news if our BMIs were trending in the right direction, but that’s simply not the case.
According to a recent data, the number of individuals who can be classified as obese or overweight climbed from 53 percent to 66 percent in less than two decades. Over that same period, the number of people who stated that they were trying to lose weight dropped from 56 percent to 49 percent. The findings were consistent for men and women, and across all races.
The Importance Of Weight Management For Your Feet
We’re not going to sit here and lecture you on the importance of weight management for your overall health. Everyone knows that maintaining a healthy weight has benefits for your whole body, but it’s also very important for your feet.
Since your feet are tasked with shouldering your entire body weight when you’re running, walking or moving about, the more you weigh, the more stress you’ll put on your feet. Oftentimes weight loss is a treatment technique that we advise when people are suffering from certain conditions, like osteoarthritis of the knee or gout. The more pressure we put on our knees, the easier they’ll break down, so eliminating some of that weight can work wonders for patients with arthritis. As for patients with gout, the condition usually flares up when they make poor dietary selections, so making good food choices can help stave off gout and help you lose weight.
Weight Management and Foot Surgery
Weight management is also extremely important when it comes to foot surgery. For starters, maintaining a healthy body weight means you’re less likely to suffer from complications during the operation. There is not a huge increase in risks if you are obese, but research shows that you are more likely to suffer a complication or require a longer hospital stay compared to healthy weight individuals.
Secondly, as we mentioned above, your feet are tasked with shouldering your entire body weight. When you undergo an operation on your foot, the muscles and soft tissues in that area are weakened due to the trauma they just experienced. If you’re putting a lot of weight on those weakened structures, surgery can fail or you can suffer a setback by overstressing these areas.
We understand that it can be difficult to get a lot of exercise if you’re suffering from a foot condition, but weight management is much more than simply getting an hour of exercise a day. It’s about committing to a healthier lifestyle in all aspects of life. Get the salad when you’re out to dinner, take the stairs instead of the elevator, put more veggies and less saturated fats in your grocery cart and find a way to remain active, like by swimming or walking the dog. These little things will add up in no time, and while they may take a couple inches off your waistline, they’ll also take a lot of stress off your feet.