"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

Why weight matters in terms of joint pain.

If you're experiencing occasional joint pain while you go for a walk or climb stairs, otherwise you're fearful about joint pain because a parent has it, turn to prevention. Step one is to ascertain your weight.

There are two ways in which being chubby increases your risk of developing osteoarthritis (probably the most common joint disorder, brought on by the damage and tear of joints). First, extra weight puts extra stress on weight-bearing joints (knees, for instance). Second, inflammatory aspects related to weight gain could cause problems in other joints (eg, hands).

Let's have a look at weights and your knees. When you walk on level ground, the force in your knees is the same as 1½ times your body weight. This signifies that a 200-pound man will put 300 kilos of stress on his knees with each step. Add a stoop, and the stress is even greater: Each knee exerts two to thrice your body weight while you walk up and down stairs, and while you sit all the way down to tie or lift a shoelace. Four to 5 times the body weight. An item you dropped.

Losing a number of kilos can go a great distance toward reducing stress in your knees and protecting them. For example, research has shown that a sustained weight reduction of 10 to fifteen kilos in obese teenagers can translate right into a much lower risk of osteoarthritis later in life.

Best technique to drop some weight

Increasing physical activity has many health advantages and may make it easier to drop some weight. But increasing your exercise alone is never enough to make it easier to drop some weight. Every pound you wish to shed represents about 3,500 calories. So when you're hoping to lose half a pound to a pound per week, you should cut 250 to 500 calories a day. A great technique to start is to attempt to burn 125 calories through exercise and eat 125 fewer calories every day.

Don't forget that the mathematics works each ways: adding in an additional 100 calories a day without burning them can leave you 10 kilos heavier at the top of a 12 months! Over time, routine foods like a scoop or two of ice cream, a calorie-laden coffee, or a visit to the cookie or candy jar can tip the scales within the improper direction.

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