6 Health Benefits of Losing Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is one of our biggest struggles — maybe it’s because our lives are so fast paced we don’t seem to have enough time to think about our health. Due to the expansion of our waistlines, weight loss has been a multi-million dollar trending business for decades, and it’s no secret why. 

We blame fast food, busy work schedules, and lack of energy on our ever-expanding waistlines, but what’s really behind the obesity epidemic? What is making us overweight, and what are the benefits of losing that excess weight?

Let’s have the weight talk, and find out once and for all how important it is to maintain a healthy weight. 

What Causes Weight Gain?

We’d like to believe it’s the fast food or the schedule, and while these definitely play a role in weight gain, the real reason we’re getting bigger has more to do with how our bodies burn calories and store fat. 

Here are some reasons behind why our bodies store excess fat.

Insulin Resistance

When we consume food, it’s broken down and used for immediate energy, or it’s stored as fat. Insulin is produced by the pancreas and helps ensure the glucose in your blood is properly stored for later use. 

If there’s too much glucose in your blood, you may be insulin resistant. Insulin resistance happens when your body can’t effectively move glucose to the cells to use for energy. This can lead to weight gain and numerous other negative health markers. 

Disease

Certain diseases can cause you to gain weight. Type II diabetes is a condition where insulin resistance has increased so much that your pancreas no longer produces enough, and the insulin that is produced is not used properly by your cells. 

Other diseases can cause weight gain but may be treatable with medication. Thyroid disorders as well as Cushing’s Disease can cause weight gain, but your doctor may be able to help you lose weight gained from these conditions. 

Eating Too Much or Too Little

Weight gain isn’t just about eating too many calories. Sure, eating more calories than your body can burn will lead to weight gain. However, eating too few calories can also wreak havoc on your body. 

Eating too few calories can cause your metabolism to become sluggish. If you aren’t eating many calories, your body will simply adjust to your new diet and burn fewer calories. While you won’t actually gain weight, you may not experience actual weight loss. 

Lack of Physical Activity

Physical exercise is an important part of any weight loss plan. Exercise burns calories, speeds up your metabolism, and can even improve your mood. 

Even if you’re following a strict diet, it may be possible to continue to gain weight if you aren’t adding physical exercise to your weight loss plan. 

Age

It’s easy to gain weight as each year passes. In fact, it’s estimated that adults between the ages of 18-49 gain an average of one to two pounds each year. However, it isn’t really our age that’s causing the weight gain. 

Even in menopausal women, the hormonal changes that are often blamed for weight gain aren’t usually the culprits. Typically, our genetics, diet, and lifestyle play larger roles in gaining weight than in our actual age. 

With every pound of unhealthy weight we gain, our health declines a little more. Losing weight can drastically improve our health, protect us from developing weight-related diseases, and increase our quality of life. Here’s how. 

Six Benefits of Losing Weight

Losing weight is a commitment, and parts of it can be really difficult. If you need a little motivation, here are six benefits you’ll get when you lose weight. 

1. Increased Mobility and Less Pain

When you lose weight, you’ll gain mobility and the freedom to move without pain. Excess body fat places significant stress on the joints, which can lead to fatigue, sore muscles, and continuous pain. 

Losing weight eases this tension and allows you to experience pain-free movement. It also decreases stress on your body and makes it safer for you to move without injury. 

2. Improved Heart Health

Your weight plays a major role in your heart health. Increased body weight causes high blood pressure, which places you at a much higher risk of stroke and heart attack. Carrying excess weight is also linked to unhealthy cholesterol levels. 

When your cholesterol levels aren’t healthy, your chances of developing heart disease increase significantly. Obesity is also associated with insulin resistance, another condition that places you at a higher risk of heart disease. 

When you lose weight, your heart health improves. Cholesterol levels lower, blood pressure decreases, and insulin resistance improves. 

3. Healthy Blood Sugar Levels

More than 34 million U.S. citizens have diabetes, and 90-95% of those people have type II diabetes. Type II diabetes happens as a result of unhealthy blood sugar levels and resistance to insulin produced by the pancreas. 

When you lose weight, your insulin resistance improves and your circulating blood sugar levels lower. In fact, losing weight can even help some people with type II diabetes manage their condition and lessen the severity of it. 

4. Blood Pressure Decreases

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure, chances are your doctor discussed weight loss with you. Blood pressure rises with weight gain, and decreases when you lose weight. 

Losing weight can put your blood pressure back in a healthy range and decrease your risk of stroke and heart attack. 

5. Better Mood

Whether the better mood that accompanies weight loss is purely from a feeling of accomplishment, or from an increase in physical activity, research shows that improved mood is directly connected with weight loss. 

Losing weight can help you feel better about yourself, improve your quality of life, and even have an impact on your relationships. 

6. Better Sleep

Excess weight can interfere with your ability to get a good night’s sleep. In fact, people who are obese generally report worse sleep than their counterparts who maintain a healthy weight. Sleep apnea, a condition where your breathing stops and starts again while you are asleep, is also more common with people who are overweight than those who are not. 

Losing weight can help increase your ability to sleep better, longer, and with fewer interruptions. 

Getting Started Losing Weight

There are numerous methods for losing weight that can help you reach your goals. No matter what your schedule or lifestyle, there’s a plan that can work for you. 

Once you’ve decided on a weight loss plan, you may consider taking a supplement to complement your weight loss journey. One surprising supplement that can help you on your weight loss journey is actually derived from fat. 

Fatty15 for Weight Loss

A dietary fat to lose weight? Yes. Pentadecanoic acid, also called C15:0, is an odd-chain, saturated fatty acid that a growing body of research shows may be the first essential fatty acid to have been discovered in over 90 years.† 

What does this mean in terms of weight loss? It means for optimal weight loss, your body may need this fatty acid daily.* Here’s how C15:0 works:

C15:0 keeps you healthy at the cellular level.* When our cells are healthy, our organs and systems are healthy. As we get older, our cells become fragile and begin to lose function. Organs begin to lose function, systems begin to break down, and we experience results like weight gain and disease. 

C15:0 dives deep into your cell membranes, strengthening them by fortifying cell walls to keep them protected from external stressors, increasing mitochondrial function, and giving your cells a fighting chance against aging.†*

C15:0 works by naturally activating receptors found through our body, called PPARs (pronounced pee-pars), that help to regulate our metabolism, immunity, mood, appetite and sleep.†* 

Getting C15:0 In Your Diet

C15:0 is primarily found in trace amounts in full-fat dairy products. At the same time you get this good fat, however, you’d be consuming unhealthy, even-chain saturated fats found in full dairy products. 

Thankfully, there’s a solution. Fatty15 is the first and only supplement that contains pure FA15™, the vegan-friendly and pure powder form of C15:0. You can take fatty15 once a day to support your healthy weight loss plan and improve your cellular health.†* 

The Takeaway

If you’ve been putting off losing weight, you’re only doing yourself a disservice. The long-term health benefits of losing weight make it worth your time and effort. You’ll not only be physically healthier, but you’ll also feel healthier and happier.

Taking a supplement like fatty15 to support your healthy weight loss may help bolster your weight loss and can support your overall health.* Fatty15 helps you reach your goals, while giving your cells what they need to stay healthy and stay more youthful.* 

 

Sources:

Pancreas|Your Hormones 

Type 2 Diabetes-Symptoms and Causes|Mayo Clinic 

Healthy Weight | The Nutrition Source | Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health 

From Anorexia to Obesity: How Weight Affects Your Heart|Cleveland Clinic 

Testing for Type 2 Diabetes|CDC 

Weight Loss Improves Mood In Depressed People, New Research Shows|Science Daily 

Insomnia and Obesity|Pub Med