“Telling someone with obesity to eat less is like telling someone with depression to cheer up”. ~ Dr
Arya Sharma.
The health and wellness industry, of which the fitness
industry is a huge part, is a multi-million dollar industry
world wide. And here in Australia, we have personal
trainers and gyms popping up like mushrooms all over the
country. There is literally one on every corner it seems.
So, one would think that Australians embracing the need
to make their health a priority would begin to eat away at
the large percentage of overweight and obese population
- yet as a nation, we are getting fatter. Rates of overweight and obesity are continuing to rise in Australia.
Based on measured height and weight from the Australian
Bureau of Statistics Australian Health Survey to calculate
BMI (I know the BMI doesn’t take into account lots of
variables, but bear with me) … Almost 2 in 3 adults are
overweight or obese (63%); 1 in 4 Australian children
(25%) are overweight or obese; 15% more people living
in outer regional and remote areas are overweight or
obese than people living in major cities and being
overweight or obese is the second highest contributor to
burden of disease, after dietary risks [with smoking being
the third highest].
This means the cost to our national health care system is
ENORMOUS!
So why is our health as a nation on the decline
while the fitness industry is still in a booming
bubble?
It’s complicated, and I certainly don’t have all the
answers, however here are some points we may all need
to take into consideration …
•Simply training hard and eating well is not always the
immediate solution. It is however a fabulous maintenance
plan once all other aspects have been addressed and the
individual is not deemed as being at risk of relapsing.
www.emmapilcher.com.au
•Psychology is an im ܝ[