Can Losing Weight Improve Long Term Health?

Approximately 68 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, according to the Weight-Control Information Network, which means their body-mass index is higher than 25. Being overweight opens a person up to a host of health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, stroke, sleeping issues, pregnancy complications and more. For most people, a loss of just 5 to 10 percent of total weight can significantly reduce health risks, according to U.S. News and World Report Health.

Lowered Cholesterol Levels

When you have increased levels of cholesterol in your blood, it can build up on the wall of your arteries. This narrows the passageway of blood to your heart. If the artery is completely blocked, it results in a heart attack. Being overweight, particularly if your waist is more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women, increases your cholesterol levels. Losing weight can help lower your LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol, which raising your HDL, or “good,” cholesterol. It also lowers your triglyceride levels.

Decreased Risk of Diabetes

When you have type 2 diabetes, your body is insulin resistant. This means your body can make insulin, but doesn’t use it properly to move glucose into cells, which increases the level of glucose in your blood. To make up for this, the pancreas creates more insulin. Losing weight – including a healthy diet and exercises -- can reverse insulin resistance. It also makes it easy for your body to reach the proper blood sugar levels, even returning the levels to normal. Even if you don’t have type 2 diabetes currently, losing weight decreases the risk of developing it eventually.

Improved Sexual Function for Men

Losing weight not only decreases risk of diseases, but improved long-term sexual health as well. A study that appeared in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in 2004 found that obese men with erectile dysfunction can improve their condition by losing weight. The study, which followed more than 31,000 men, found that obesity increased risk of erectile dysfunction by 30 percent. This was attributed to obesity’s negative effects on blood vessels. Losing weight increases blood flow to the penis, therefore improving sexual health.

GERD

Losing weight can decrease symptoms of gastroesphoageal reflux disease, which affects approximately 44 percent of Americans, according to Johns Hopkins Hospital. Extra fat in the abdomen can put pressure on the stomach, which causes the lower esophageal sphincter to relax. This allows the stomach contents to flow up into the esophagus. A 2006 study in "The New England Journal of Medicine" found that women who decreased their body mass by 20 pounds or more had reduced risk of GERD symptoms.

Improved mood

Weight loss affects your longterm mental health, as well. A 2011 study in the "International Journal of Obesity" found that overweight or obese people that lost weight had relief from symptoms of depression. The study did not focus on those with clinical people, and it was a lifestyle modification -- such as counseling on diet and exercise, as well as increased physical activity -- that had the greatest impact.