Health Problems and Eating Disorders - Research Paper Example

Excessive Weight Loss Introduction This paper examines the various approaches that an individual can use to deal with excessive weight loss. The paper takes a problem-solution approach in analyzing the main problem and offering appropriate solutions. Weight loss is a healthy process aimed at helping individuals avoid health complications that are associated with obesity of overweight conditions. Obesity and overweight comprise of a major issue in the developed world affecting a big percentage of teenagers. There is, therefore, a need to promote healthy lifestyles in developing countries aimed at reducing obesity and overweight problems (Chin 93). However, the efforts to promote weight loss can have adverse results if not managed properly. The obsession to lose weight can lead to excessive weight loss, which predisposes individual to other health problems and eating disorders. Weight loss, also referred to as slimming in medical terms refers to the process of reducing one’s total body mass. Body mass can be lost through various ways mean loss of body fluids, body fats, muscles, mineral deposits or tendons and other connective tissues in the body. Weight loss can occur either voluntarily or unintentionally. Involuntary weight loss can occur as a result of underlying health problems. Unintentional weight loss may result from depression, chronic infections like HIV/AIDS, anxiety, stress, or diarrhea. Voluntary or intentional weight loss, on the other hand, is a conscious effort of an individual to reduce weight due to perceived or actual obese of overweight state. Excessive weight loss, on the other hand, refers to an extreme reduction in one’s body mass leading to development of other health complications. Reasons for Losing Weight There are various reasons why individuals lose weight. Intentional weight loss has many social, psychological, and health advantages to people. Different people, however, approach the question of weight loss with varying needs and intentions. The most common reason, however, is for health purposes. Excess weight leads top various overweight and obesity conditions where one’s body mass is beyond generally accepted range for average people. Individuals who are overweight or obese are vulnerable many health complications like heart diseases, cancer, strokes, diabetes, emotional problems like depression, and reducing one’s lifespan (Lipowski 13). It is, therefore, advisable for individuals to avoid gaining extra pound in order live healthy lifestyles and avoid these diseases. Weight loss, if properly managed, is healthy processes that can help an individual avoid serious health complications. The other reason why individuals lose weight is because of their career goals and objectives. Some careers such as modeling require participants to be of a certain body shape and weight. Female models are usually slender while male models often have muscular bodies that have low fat levels and more muscles. Those who wish to pursue modeling will, therefore, try to lose weight so as to achieve the minimum requirements in terms of weight and body shape. Other careers such as sports and television news broadcasting also prefer people with less weight. Some people, especially teenage girls lose weight due to peer pressure and dominant cultural values. Media plays a big role in the contemporary world I promoting ideal social values among people. The media in both developed and developing world portrays slim women as the ideal description of beauty. Most girls and women, therefore try as much as they can to lose their weight in order to look beautiful according to the society’s perception of beauty. Peer pressure also contributes a great deal in promoting weight loss among teenagers (Behan 23). Most teenagers will come under pressure to conform to their groups desires to look pretty through maintain less weight. Other individuals lose weight because of various social and cultural issues associated with obesity and overweight conditions. In most societies, overweight and obesity are associated with overeating and other undesired social habits, sometimes emanating from social stereotypes. Individuals with excess weight, therefore, are stigmatized and suffer from depression and other emotional and psychological problems. For these people, weight loss seems to be the only way for them to be socially accepted and fit in the society. Another reason for losing weight is to improve one’s fitness and enhance appearance. Physical fitness is important because it increases a person’s mobility and helps to avoid health complications. Fitness also helps an individual to attain a desired body shape and reduce the level of fat content in the body. Physical fitness is particularly important for sports people and those who engage in tasks that are physically demanding. This is because fitness will make an individual stable, stronger and tolerant to challenges that may demand a lot of physical energy. Physical fitness can only be attained through a clear effort in exercising, personal hygiene, good nutrition. Problems Associated With Excessive Weight Loss While weight loss is a healthy issue, obsession with weight loss for various reasons can lead to excessive weight loss, thereby affecting the individual’s health in the process. When people become preoccupied with weight loss, they create an environment for serious psychologica; problems as well as running a risk of developing other health complications in the long-run (Jantz 84). Excessive weight loss is an extreme condition where one looses more weight that is required. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily. One complication that is likely to emerge from excessive weight loss is eating disorders. These are a group of serious health conditions characterized by one’s preoccupation with food and weight resulting in an individual consuming excess food or insufficient amounts of food in order to control his or her desired weight and body shape. Eating disorders are psychological conditions because they affect one’s mental state in terms of their emotional development. Eating disorders often result in other serious physical, mental, emotional and in some cases life-threatening conditions. Major types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder (Jantz 49). Anorexia nervosa arises from a psychological condition where an individual has a distorted image of his or her body, causing them to view themselves as being excessively overweight, when in fact, they are very slim. Individuals with anorexia nervosa often reduce the amount of food they eat in order to reduce their weight. Individuals with anorexia nervosa often reduce the amount of food they eat in order to reduce their weight. Most of them usually refuse eating in front of others and eat very little when they are on their own. They also engage in compulsive exercise in order to reduce weight faster. If not rectified early, anorexia nervosa can cause an individual to starve themselves to death. Another characteristic of individuals with anorexia nervosa is that they have an intense fear of gaining weight and that they do not realize the severity of their situation when they keep on losing weight. Bulimia nervosa is mainly characterized by excessive eating and purging. It also arises from the fact that an individual considers himself or herself overweight and wishes to lose weight. Individuals with this disorder often consume a lot of food, often in excess quantities and later on purging their bodies off the food in order to lose their weight. These individuals often use several techniques to purge, including induced vomiting, excessive exercising, or using diuretics, enemas and laxatives. These people often feel ashamed of their beige behavior, but often feel relieved once they release the food from their stomachs. This is because they feel they have shade off a huge amount of emotional stress and ridicule from other people for being overweight. Binge eating disorder, on the other hand, involves excessive consumption of food without any attempts to purge. Individuals with this eating disorder often fell ashamed of their eating habits, but they always feel out of control in most cases. An individual may eat large amounts of food on different episodes in a day, thus leading to uncontrolled loss of weight in the process. People with binge eating disorder may consume a lot of food even when they are not feeling hungry. Psychologists also have also identified another group of eating disorders referred to as "eating disorders not otherwise specified." This is a group of bad eating habits that do not yet meet the level of other known eating disorders such as the ones that are identified above. Excessive weight loss can also lead to unusual lifestyles and psychological problems to the individuals. Individuals who lose weight excessively may engage in unusual lifestyles such as engaging in over-exercising, eating little amounts of food among other lifestyle changes (Jantz 105). These changes are unnecessary because they lead to other psychological problems and may affect the individuals adversely (Behan 76). For instance, individuals who lose weight excessively may be associated with various terminal diseases such as cancer and HIV/Aids, which affect a patient’s weight. This may lead to labeling and eventual stigmatization of individuals with excessive weight loss. Excessive weight loss can also be problematic if a person suffers from other diseases in the process of losing weight. In the process of losing weight, an individual may suffer from metabolic disorders. This results from a disruption in the internal metabolic process. This may be due to an organ’s failure to produce essential body enzymes or under-producing some essential hormones (Lipowski 51). This situation is likely to result in hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, which is excessive of minimal secretion of thyroid hormones in the body. This has a direct effect on the individual’s weight. The disruption of one’s metabolism can threaten one’s process of losing weight and create favorable conditions for other health complications such as diabetes o thrive. Patients with complications like tuberculosis, kidney, HIV/Aids and heart diseases should not attempt to lose weight because this is likely to aggravate the situation. These conditions often lead to involuntary weight loss. Any attempt, therefore, by individuals suffering from these either of these diseases to lose weight voluntarily through exercise or reducing the amount of food intake can lead to excessive weight loss. Solutions for dealing with weight loss Weight loss has numerous benefits to an individual. The process of losing weight can, however, be challenging for some individuals if not managed properly. Excessive weight loss, as earlier stated, can have extreme impact on an individual’s health. Obsession with weight loss is a major problem as people strive to get their desire to lose weight in order to conform to ideals of the society (Chhajer 123). The media plays a significant role in informing people of these ideals, for instance by portraying slim girls as the ideal representation of beauty. While weight loss is a desirable process in terms of its implications, the problems emerging from excessive weight loss suggest that the main challenge is dealing with weight loss through proper management. The main objective for losing weight should be to attain an acceptable body mass index. This requires a good balance between the amount of weight lost and the amount of nutritional food consumed in order to avoid going to the extreme ends of the equation. Some of the best solutions for dealing with problems of managing weight and weight loss include good nutrition, personal hygiene, and exercising. Good nutrition or dieting refers to the practice of regulating the types and amounts of food that one consumes in order to maintain desired body shape and weight. This is a gradual process, which requires some level of a change in lifestyle in order to be effective. Good nutrition requires one to eat well-balanced meals in terms of their nutritional values. A good nutritional meal should have all the basic nutritional values in the right proportions (Clark 42). Dieting is generally classified based on four main categories namely low fat diets, low calorie diets, low carbohydrate diets, and very low calorie diets. These diets aim at reducing the amount of fat, carbohydrates and calories that one consumes in one meal. Dieting helps individuals to avoid consuming foods that can lead to accumulation of fats and excess calories in the body because this can lead to weight problems (Clark 93). God nutrition requires a long-term commitment by an individual to manage his or her weight through managing the content and amount of food they take. Personal hygiene is the other strategy that can be used to manage ones health and weight problems. This refers to various practices that are aimed at maintaining or preserving bodily health. These include cleanliness and environmental awareness. Personal hygiene helps individuals to avoid illnesses, maintain optimal standards of health and increase chances of social acceptance. Personal hygiene is very crucial for individuals trying to lose weight because it has a direct relationship with their health. When making an effort to reduce one’s weight, it is important for individuals to avoid any factors that can lead to complicated health problems. Health problems are likely tom derail an individual from adhering to his or her plan to lose weight efficiently thereby undermining the whole process. Exercising is important in maintaining physical fitness. Physical fitness can have a direct impact on an individuals weight. Exercising leads to a reduction in the levels of fat content in the body while also burning down calories. Regular exercising also gives one’s body stability and strengthens muscles (Stanfield and Hui 117). In order to lose weight efficiently, one need not to overindulge in exercise. Exercises should be regulated and done consistently in order to be effective. The three solutions identified above are very effective and efficient in helping individuals manage their weight loss and avoid problems of excessive weight loss. The three strategies are very beneficial because the only require one to change his or her lifestyle as opposed to consuming other chemicals to reduce weight. These strategies are also helpful because they attend to an individual’s holistic development in terms of promoting advancing one’s social, physical and emotional needs. On the other hand, if these or similar strategies are not implemented it is likely to worsen one’s health and the weight problems are likely to persist. Works Cited Behan, Eileen. Eat Well, Lose Weight, While Breastfeeding: The Complete Nutrition Book for Nursing Mothers. New York: Ballantine Books, 2006. Print. Chhajer, Bimal. 201 Tips for Losing Weight. New Delhi: Fusion Books, 2005. Print. Chin, Jean L. The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger, 2010. Print. Civish, Fred M. Losing Weight for Life: Eating What You Like with the Rmr Diet. Springville, Utah: Cedar Fort, 2009. Print. Clark, Nancy. Nancy Clarks Sports Nutrition Guidebook. , 2014. Print. Jantz, Gregory L. Losing Weight Permanently. Grand Rapids, MI: Spire/Fleming H. Revell, 2004. Print. Lipowski, Michael. Pure Physique Nutrition: Dieting for a Lean, Muscular Build. S.l.: Price World Publishing, 2010. Print. Stanfield, Peggy, and Y H. Hui. Nutrition and Diet Therapy: Self-instructional Modules. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 2009. Print Read More