Sorry it has been such a long time since I last posted. After my husband was seriously ill last year and hospitalized twice that culminated with an emergency surgery, our family has been looking seriously at our health. As a couple who had a child late in life, I felt longevity was something we needed to focus our energy on.
As a Vietnamese American, waist circumference, BMI, and weight takes on a more heightened meaning. Asians overall have higher rates of diabetes, renal failure due to diabetes, and strokes of any other race in America. Which is due to the manner in which we store fat on our bodies. Asian’s tend to store fat inside their abdominal cavity right around their organs, also known as visceral fat.
Fat acts as an organ by producing an array of hormones. Hormones that are involved with blood clotting, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and cell signaling. In this manner, when there is too much fat stored, these hormones can affect other organs negatively.
This means as an Asian American, I need to be at a smaller weight and have a smaller waist circumference than the rest of the population. Non-Asian women with a waist circumference over 35 inches are at high risk for developing heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, whereas Asian women with a waist circumference over 31 inches are at high risk for those same things. That is a 4-inch difference in waist size. Asians also have to stay at much lower BMI to lower their risks for these diseases.
What is considered a healthy weight for the average American would put an Asian American at high risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Japan has taken steps to adjust their BMI charts to take into account the higher risk at lower BMI’s for their population, they now consider a BMI of over 25 to be obese. In comparison, a BMI of 24 is healthy for non-Asian populations, they are not even considered overweight.
Every 11-pound increase in weight in adulthood for Asians correlates with an 84% increase in their chances of getting diabetes.
What this means for my own health… I have lost 20 pounds this year and now currently weigh 143 pounds, which equaled a loss of 2 inches in waist circumference. For me to lose another 3 inches around my waist to reach a waistline of 31 inches, I would likely need to lose another 30 pounds.
The weight loss has been very slow. Over the course of almost 2 years, I have lost 35 pounds. My spouse actually lost 50 pounds in a month or two during his health crisis, which left him weak and wasted.
Last November, 10 months ago, we joined a gym. To gain strength and at the same time lessen the impact on our joints, we just did an hour on the elliptical every day for two months. After that, we started adding stair stepper and jogging to our exercise routine. At this point, we regularly run on the treadmill 3-4 days a week.
I did experience a couple of setbacks this year with straining a tibialis anterior muscle, which kept me from exercising for 4 weeks. Then I had minor surgery on my foot which laid me up for another 4 weeks.
My husband has made tremendous gains in his strength and endurance. He was running eighteen to twenty miles a week, but has backed off from that pace when his work became more physically strenuous.
Sources:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ee8f/dbb68f1e1470b0333ddef027a5b75344a0da.pdf
https://www.yourhormones.info/glands/adipose-tissue/
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/ethnic-differences-in-bmi-and-disease-risk/
No comments:
Post a Comment