Obesity is often the main reason people decide they want to lose weight.

Are you also overweight? Then this article is one of the most important articles you will ever read.

What is obesity
When you are overweight
What are the causes of obesity
What are the consequences of obesity
Tips for losing weight
About obesity treatment and Gastric Bypass
How to prevent obesity
Overweight in children
What is Obesity?
You are overweight if your body has relatively too much fat tissue. In the Netherlands, half of the adults are overweight: 50.1% of the Dutch are moderately or seriously overweight (2019).

Overweight is more common in men than in women. In the case of seriously overweight, obesity, it is the other way around: more women are obese than men. (1)

Am I overweight?
Not sure if you are overweight? Then you can calculate your overweight by calculating your BMI (Body Mass Index). Your BMI is a measure of your (over) weight based on your gender, age, height and weight.

A healthy BMI (for adults) is as follows:

Less than 18.5: Underweight
Between 18.5 – 24.9: healthy and normal weight
Between 25 – 29.9: overweight
Over 30: Obesity
Obesity can be divided into three classes. BMI 30-35 (class 1), BMI 35-40 (class 2) and BMI 40 or higher (class 3). You can calculate your own BMI here.

Don’t be blind to the number of your BMI. There is a big disadvantage to the way your BMI is calculated. The formula does not take your specific situation into account.

The way your skeleton is composed, for example, or the genetic predisposition of your body not to retain water.

But: a healthy BMI does not automatically mean a healthy body. You can have a healthy BMI, but you can also suffer from excess body fat.

This body fat can be on two sides: on the outside of your organs (stomach, buttocks, hips) or around the vital organs.

And you guessed it, body fat around your organs – visceral fat – is in many ways more dangerous than when it’s on the outside. Because even if you are slim, you can have a relatively large amount of organ fat.

Visceral fat leads to an increased risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, as well as life-threatening diseases such as cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, cerebral infarction and Alzheimer’s.
The organs themselves will also work less well if there is a lot of fat around them.
Visceral fat is not always bad: According to Harvard Health (2), it is healthy if 10% of your body fat contains visceral fat.

The only way to tell how much visceral fat you have is with a CT or MRI scan. An easy (but less reliable) way to measure it yourself is to measure your circumference.

The following rule of thumb applies: if you are a woman and the girth is 88.9 cm or greater, then chances are that you have a lot of visceral fat. For men this is 101 cm or more. (3)

What are the causes of obesity?
How can obesity actually arise? Usually there is a combination of factors, such as:

Excess consumption
Unhealthy food (too many sugars and fat)
Not enough exercise
This all has to do with the environment you are in. For example, your parents’ eating and living patterns have a major influence on your behavior and having one or two overweight parents is one of the most important factors in your own overweight.

Other causes that can increase obesity is

The use of medication
Heredity
A chronic illness or disability
Quit smoking
Apart from special cases, we can say that the biggest cause of excess body fat is unhealthy food. In fact, 70% of obesity is caused by incorrect nutrition and 30% of lack of exercise.

Exercise is therefore not the most efficient solution to get rid of your overweight. If you want to lose weight quickly, you will have to change something in your diet.

It is like this:

Our body is mainly built to digest vegetables, healthy fats and proteins. This is the food our body is “made” for.
That is the food that our body “knows” and knows how to handle it. Our body is more difficult to deal with modern produced and sugary food. This also includes grains such as pasta, potatoes and bread.
These are carbohydrates that are difficult for your body to process and therefore often store as body fat. And if you eat too much of it, you will become overweight.
To lift a tip of the veil: it is an option to eat delicious and enough food and still lose weight. Slimming pills, strict lines and (crash) diets are not a healthy solution.

What are the consequences of being overweight?
I think we all know that being overweight is harmful to your health. But what exactly does obesity do to your body? How dangerous

is it and where can it lead?

Being overweight and obese causes:

A greater risk of diabetes
Increased blood pressure
An increased cholesterol level
Joint complaints due to the extra pressure on the body
Sleep apnea (snoring)
Possible menstrual problems
Possible incontinence problems
Chance of reduced fertility.
Obesity: how do you get rid of it?
So we now know how dangerous obesity can be. So the question now remains: how can you tackle obesity?

In order to (permanently) be on top of obesity and get a healthier body, it is important that you take immediate action.

So don’t start tomorrow or Monday, but today!

Start by downloading Jasper’s shopping list. This is a free tool in which you can see in one overview which products are and which are not healthy and will help you lose weight.

Start removing all unhealthy products from your kitchen cupboard and fridge today. That is step one to better health and a healthy diet.

Then get started with these three practical steps you can take right now to start losing weight in a fun way.

Step 1: Avoid sugar, grains and manufactured foods
Sugar, grains and trans fats (e.g. in milk, deep-frying, baking and frying fat, pastry, biscuits and snacks) are difficult for your body to digest.

The metabolism and digestion of these products cause a strong spike in your blood sugar, which causes your body to convert the energy into body fat.

Therefore, start by avoiding sugars, grains and food produced as much as possible. Examples are sweets, biscuits, fast food, chips, bread, pasta, rice, pizza, noodles, ready-to-eat (pasta) sauces, gingerbread, cornflakes and muesli.

That can suddenly be a major change if you are used to eating these products (often).

Try experimenting with a low-carbohydrate diet. Since these nutrients are not in this diet, you will see results quickly.

Step 2: Eat plenty of vegetables, healthy fats and enough protein
Okay, so you are actually not allowed to eat a lot of things that you may have always liked very much. What exactly is left?

All products for which your body is actually made. Products that our distant ancestors already ate.

Examples of these products are vegetables, nuts, seeds, fish, meat, chicken, eggs, herbs, spices, natural oils and a little fruit.

You will be amazed at the number of delicious and flavorful meals you can make with these products.

If you find it difficult to make up your own recipes or you need some help or inspiration, you can take a look at the 7 × 7 Weight Loss Program.

This book has already helped thousands of people lose weight in a fun and easy way because it includes handy weekly schedules and shopping lists.

This book is proof that you can eat not only healthy, but also delicious while you lose weight.

Step 3: Drink enough water
Finally, it is very important that you drink enough water. Ask yourself: do you actually drink enough water?

Your body is about 70% water. Your body needs enough water to burn body fat. If you drink enough water, you can ignore all soft drinks and fruit juices.

Depending on your weight, gender and exercise, you drink between 2.5 and 3.5 liters of water every day.

And: do not forget to exercise enough! In addition to the fact that sufficient exercise is very healthy, it burns just a few extra calories, making weight loss a lot faster.

But healthy eating remains the most important thing. In addition to the 7 × 7 Weight Loss Program, we have developed even more programs to make weight loss fun:

The Vegetarian Winter Plan (2020): a unique method of vegetarian and low-carbohydrate, with delicious recipes for the winter
Body Happiness (2019): This is the most complete weight loss book you will ever read. It consists of two books: a super thick recipe book and a theory book, with 20 slimming techniques.
The Vegetarian Slimming Plan (2018): for anyone who eats vegetarian or wants to try vegetarian.
Stop Binge Eating Program (2017): for anyone who suffers from binge eating.
The Smoothie Weight Loss Plan (2015): lose weight fast and detox, including winter edition with soup recipes.
Obesity treatment or stomach reduction (Gastric Bypass)
If you are unable to lose weight independently or if you fall into a high obesity class, you can see whether counseling for overweight is reimbursed in your case.

In some cases obesity treatment is reimbursed from the basic insurance. This then falls under the so-called “combined lifestyle intervention”. Whether you qualify for this depends on the degree of overweight.

Discuss with your doctor which treatment is most suitable for you and inform your health insurer about the conditions for reimbursement.

Conclusion
In this article you have read that obesity is often the main reason why people decide to lose weight.

The biggest cause of excess body fat is 70% improper nutrition and 30% too little exercise. Exercise is therefore not the most efficient solution to get rid of your obesity.
To be on top of obesity (for good) and to get a healthier body, it is important that you take immediate action.
Start by downloading Jasper’s shopping list and removing all unhealthy products from your kitchen cupboard and fridge.
Other tips for losing weight quickly include: avoiding sugar, grains and manufactured foods, eating lots of vegetables, healthy fats and proteins, and drinking plenty of water.
Do you need help making weekly schedules, shopping lists or do you want inspiration for healthy yet tasty recipes? Take a look at one of our weight loss programs.