Excess weight puts excess strain on your heart, weakening it as time passes. Losing weight in a healthy manner reduces this strain and improves your heart health. Moreover, losing weight through moderate exercise not only reduces the stress on your heart but also strengthens your heart. Losing too much weight too quickly could actually cause damage, however.
Risk Factors of Heart Disease
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute lists obesity among the leading risk factors of heart disease. Other risk factors, including high LDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high blood glucose and physical inactivity, often have a direct connection to being overweight or obese. Others, including a family history of heart disease and cigarette smoking, have less connection to obesity, but an individual with these unrelated risk factors should still maintain a healthy weight to reduce their chances of heart disease.
Reducing Pressure on the Heart
Weighing too much puts stress on your heart. As the Cleveland Clinic explains, "The more you weigh, the harder your heart must work to carry and nourish the excess weight." In overweight individuals, the heart must pump harder to carry fuel -- in the form of calories -- to various parts of the body. The additional work puts stress on the heart over time, weakening the heart and making an overweight individual more prone to experience heart disease. Losing weight helps reduce the stress your heart experiences, decreasing your risk of heart disease.
Strengthening the Heart
If you lose weight through healthy diet and exercise, you may even strengthen your heart. The heart, like any muscle, becomes stronger when exercised. A heart under constant strain gradually weakens, but a heart under less stress typically builds up additional strength. As "The New York Times" Health Guide explains, a stronger heart can then pump more blood per beat than a weak heart, reducing the heart's overall strain even more. Exercise also helps reduce inflammation of the arteries and keeps blood vessels flexible, further reducing stress on the heart.
Precautions
Too much strenuous exercise too quickly can actually damage your heart rather than strengthen it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of cardiac arrest increases when an individual suddenly introduces a high level of physical activity to his routine. Introduce low levels of exercise into your day and gradually increase those levels as you continue strengthening your heart. Those with chronic heart disease should discuss exercise limitations with their doctor before attempting any diet and exercise on their own. Additionally, talk to your doctor before trying any other weight loss measures to determine how they might affect your heart. The Weight-Control Information Network explains that diet pills, especially those containing phentermine, increase blood pressure and heart rate and could damage the heart if taken inappropriately.
References
- Cleveland Clinic: Heart and Vascular Health and Prevention - Weight Management
- National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: Assessing Your Weight and Health Risk
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Physical Activity and Health
- The Ohio State University Medical Center: Weight and Heart Disease
- "The New York Times" Health Guide: Exercise's Effects on the Heart
- Community Health Plan of Washington: Physical Activity - Understanding the Basics
- Weight-Control Information Network: Prescription Medications for the Treatment of Obesity
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