What losing half a stone really does for your Health

Shedding a few pounds can improve back pain and help insomnia.

If you have extra pounds that you would like to shift, losing just 7lbs can have an impact on your health.

Duane Mellor, a researcher and teaching fellow in nutrition at Aston University Medical School, says that losing a surplus half stone brings many immediate benefits to most people. “There can be big improvements to metabolic health and joint health and reduced risk of disease with relatively small amounts of weight lost,” Mellor says. “If you can lose half a stone instead of gaining it in your forties to sixties, then your longevity prospects soar.”

Roy Taylor, a professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University, says that reduced blood fats and cholesterol levels, better sleep patterns and less back pain are some of the benefits that come with initial modest weight loss. Overweight participants in his studies reported huge life improvements after shedding their first 7lb. “There were mood improvements and they reported being more mobile and energetic, better able to bound upstairs and generally more positive about life,” he says. Here’s what losing half a stone can do for your health:

Sleep Better

According to the NHS, excess weight is a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnoea, which causes breathing to stop and start as you sleep, most often when people sleep on their backs. It’s more common in overweight people, when it can be the result of gaining excess fatty tissue in the tongue and throat area, which blocks airways when throat muscles relax. Typical symptoms are night-time snoring and daytime sleepiness. “Losing half a stone will help to reduce neck size through lowering fatty tissue volume, which will mean less snoring,” Mellor says. “Joint alignment will improve, which means that sleeping positions will be more comfortable and you are less likely to wake up.”

It will protect your joints

Being very overweight is the “largest modifiable risk factor” for joint problems such as osteoarthritis and knee, hip and ankle pain, according to the charity Versus Arthritis.

Carrying 7lb of extra weight can mean an added 30lb of pressure on your knees and other lower body joints, says Bill Ribbans, professor of sports medicine at the University of Northampton. “You subject your joints to much more load in everyday life if you are even a few pounds overweight, as activities such as climbing stairs puts pressure equivalent to multiple amounts of your body weight through your joints,” he says. “Losing half a stone can mean considerably less force going through your joints every day, which is highly protective.”

A study by Australian researchers published in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy showed that losing half a stone led to moderate improvements in joint pain and functionality in people with knee and hip osteoarthritis

Your lung function will be better

Lose a modest amount of extra weight and you will breathe more easily. A 2020 study in Thorax medical journal tracked 3,673 adults for 20 years, measuring body weight and lung function at the beginning, middle and end of the trial. Nearly two thirds of the participants gained weight, which led to a deterioration in lung function — no matter how much they weighed at the start. But among those who were overweight as young adults, their lung health had improved significantly if they lost more than half a pound a year (or just over half a stone). “Weight gain causes increased inflammation in the body, which can adversely influence lung function,” says Professor John Brewer, author of Running Science. “Most studies show that controlling or losing weight to a healthy level is important for good lung function.”

Your sex life will improve

Being overweight dampens your libido and energy levels. But lose that weight and your sex life could be transformed. A study of overweight women showed that losing even modest amounts of weight led to boosted sex drive, improved sexual function and better arousal levels. Studies on men have shown links between being overweight and erectile dysfunction, and that weight loss can help to reverse it. “Being overweight can affect levels of the male sex hormone testosterone and losing weight can restore the hormone to healthy levels,” the nutrition therapist Ian Marber says. “This is important for libido and sexual function.”

Back Pain will be relieved

Extra weight means extra loading of the spinal discs, which can lead to degeneration and back pain. A study of 2,599 Chinese volunteers found that, in people with back pain, disc degeneration was associated with an elevated BMI and the researchers suggested that in addition to the burden of extra weight, the extra fat cells might play a role by causing chronic low-grade inflammation of the spine.

“Being even a bit overweight can negatively impact metabolic health, which is also associated with higher levels of musculoskeletal pain,” said Christopher Martey, a physiotherapist and spokesman for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). “Losing a few pounds if you need to is very helpful for back and joints.”

You will find running easier

If you find running hard work, shedding seven surplus pounds could make a difference. Researchers first realised the impact of carrying extra weight when exercising more than 40 years ago, when a study at the University of Georgia showed that runners asked to carry an additional half stone in a harness attached to their back ran 89m less in a 12-minute running trial, meaning they slowed by 1.4 seconds per mile for every additional pound they carried.

A more recent study by exercise scientists at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens showed that losing half a stone resulted in a 3.1 per cent improvement over a 3,000m running trial.

“Excess body weight in the form of too much fat is extra baggage and runners pay the penalty for lugging around an extra half stone or more,” says Professor Brewer. “It not only slows them down but affects how efficiently their bodies are able to use oxygen, which makes the activity seem harder.”

You will stabilise your body’s blood sugars

In most people of a healthy weight, the hormone insulin slows the release of fatty acids into the bloodstream, suppresses glucose production in the liver and helps muscles to use glucose, all of which keep blood sugar under control. However, excess weight interferes with this process, raising the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Losing a few pounds can help to get things back on track, as a study of more than 1,000 people showed. In the trial conducted by the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and the University of East Anglia, those who shed half a stone and increased their exercise over two years reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 47 per cent for those considered at risk of getting the condition.

“We can be very optimistic that even a modest weight loss and an increase in physical activity in real-world programmes like this have a big effect on the risk of getting type 2 diabetes,” says Professor Mike Sampson, a consultant in diabetes at NNUH.

If you already have type 2 diabetes, losing half a stone is not enough to send it into remission, but it’s a start. “It is enough to improve insulin control,” Mellor says. “And things will improve with the more weight you lose.”

Your risk of heart disease will be reduced

Being metabolically healthy means that you have the correct levels of blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure and waist circumference to protect against heart disease, diabetes and stroke. If you are overweight, your metabolic health usually declines, but losing even a small amount can set you back on track.

Using data from 7,670 US adults, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that obese adults who lost 20 per cent of their weight were 53 per cent less likely to have metabolic syndrome, the umbrella term for a range of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes — but the study also showed that losing half a stone reduced their risk by 22 per cent.

“If you’re overweight or obese, even losing just a little is better than none,” says Greg Knell, assistant professor in the school of public health at Houston, who co-authored the paper.

Your blood pressure will be lowered

Extra weight raises the workload of the heart and increases blood pressure. By losing weight you can lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and significantly reduce high blood pressure. Normal high blood pressure is considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg and raised blood pressure 140/90mmHg or higher. According to the British Heart Foundation, losing weight is all most people need to do to keep blood pressure down. “You can lower blood pressure by about 3-6mmHG if you lose about half a stone,” Mellor says. “It’s highly effective.”

You will lower your risk of some types of cancer

Too much extra weight raises your risk of some types of cancer, partly by affecting levels of hormones that can help cancers to develop. For example, fatty tissue is known to produce excess amounts of oestrogen, high levels of which have been linked with raised risks of breast, endometrial, ovarian and other cancers.

“Raised levels of insulin in overweight people are also associated with an increased risk of certain cancers,” Taylor says. “These include colon, kidney, prostate and endometrial cancers.”

In one investigation conducted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the American Cancer Society, researchers analysed data taken from ten studies on 180,885 women who were 50 or older, tracking them over a ten-year period. During that time there were 6,930 cases of breast cancer.

Women who lost between 4.5kg and 9kg (10-20lb) of excess weight had a 16 per cent lower risk of breast cancer and those who lost 9kg or more reduced their risk by 26 per cent

But women who lost between 2kg and 4.5kg (4.4lb and 10lb) also cut their risk of breast cancer by 13 per cent. “Keeping a healthy weight is important for reducing the risk of many types of cancers,” Mellor says.

Reference

Friday April 29 2022, 11.00am, The Times