Many women view having extra weight as a big problem which affects their choices on healthy living. PHOTO I FILE
What you need to know:
Losing wieght shouldn’t drive you to the extent where you feel you need to use supplements to cut off the extra weight.
The fact that she had to live her whole life being called names was too much for Anna Robert. At a young age, she had to endure the bullying coming from her fellow pupils and that went on until she completed her secondary education.
With three months remaining to join university, Anna was desperate to lose some weight to fit in the new college life style.
“I was overweight and at some point it made me feel uncomfortable especially when people called me names such as tipwatipwa or bonge whenever I passed on crowded streets .I never used to care much when I was young though there were times I had to fight with boys at school to keep them from calling me names,” says Anna adding “But as I grew up I became very conscious of my body and it got worse when I was about to join college. I wanted to look just like other university girls, to be able to put on stylish clothes and feel beautiful and so I was determined to look slimmer.”
Aged 20, she felt uncomfortable with her body and had tried a number of diets with no success.
A friend of hers who apparently had lost weight using supplements gave her tips on what to do and it didn’t take Anna very long to find one for herself.
What Anna didn’t know at the time was that the diet she was supposed to follow was an appetite suppressant.
“Since it was made of natural herbs as I was told, I felt that it was going to be safe because at that time all I really cared about was if it will help me lose weight. My appetite went down and I never felt hungry and I found myself eating very little of what I used to eat, within two months I lost more than 20 kilogrammes,” says Anna, who is now 28.
But Anna’s weight loss cost her because apart from losing her appetite, she was dehydrated most of the time because of diarrhoea. “I also developed some other complications including having ulcers and kidney problems. My mother and rest of my family members had to intervene to save me with the help of health professionals.
“I have learned to accept myself, the worries that maybe men won’t be attracted to me or I won’t look beautiful are all gone now, this is who I am and I cannot change that but the best thing I do is eat healthier meals and exercise. We should learn to love ourselves,” says Anna. Anna is not alone in the cycle to lose weight. This is a known issue which has seen both men and women try so hard to lose weight.
A fast growing trend
In fact this has become a fast-growing trend that has seen many women young and old seek ways to cut weight in a short period of time.
Before, it was a common thing for African women to have stunning curvy figures where many of them were not ashamed to embrace such beauty. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case any more as many women today invest money as well as time and energy, chasing for bodies that they believe will meet the standard of beauty as defined by society.
Angela Ndazi 34, a mother of two is on a list of women who felt the pressure of cutting down weight. “Every time I looked at myself in the mirror I didn’t like what I saw ,my stomach was big and I had added weight in other body parts. The outfits didn’t look good on me like they used to. I also didn’t like how my friends kept telling me how I have added some extra weight,” says Angela. She made a decision to cut on weight and she was determined to maintain it. “I weighed almost 70 kilogrammes but I have managed to maintain it between 58 to 60 kilogrammes though I had to make a lot of effort; this included dieting.” She continues; “The diet I had saw me cut down some weight in just a few weeks. For instance, I remember chewing 4 to 5 Gallic cloves early in the morning and there after I had to take hot glass of water mixed with lemon and ginger, they were very effective and I could definitely feel something in my stomach. This went hand in hand with physical exercises such as jogging 10 to 20 rounds in the evenings, some 70 sit-ups and skipping rope,” narrates Angela.
“It was crazy but I was determined to lose weight and nothing could stop me. For instance for breakfast I could have just one boiled egg and a glass of cucumber juice mixed with ginger, water and lemon and I had it also for lunch and within a week I managed to cut 9 kilogrammes and now I weigh 59 kilogrammes,” she explains.
Health expert’s opinion
While women like Angela struggle to cut weight, health experts say most people see their body image based on how they think and feel about their body. “Body image involves your thoughts, perception, imagination and emotions. It does not necessarily reflect what you see in the mirror or what other people see,” says a medical doctor from Amana hospital. He adds that poor body image is often linked to dieting, over-exercising, or eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders, and in other cases mental health issues such as low self-esteem, depression or anxiety.
“Some people diet because they have a poor body image, rather than because they want to eat nutritionally well. Though it is important to maintain healthy eating behaviours, constant dieting can lead to physical illness and depression especially if one’s weight goes up and down after dieting,” he cautions.
He warns that if those who wish to cut down weight fail to follow the proper ways then the risk of them generating other problems increases.
“Cutting down weight is a good thing especially if you feel that your health is at risk, but that doesn’t mean that we have to take a short cut for that to happen, apparently many people don’t seek advice from public health experts,” says the health expert.
“We consume a lot of carbohydrate foods of which we don’t create a demand of the calories created by the food we eat, instead these calories pile up and end up making us fat. It’s sad that some women who are desperate to cut weight think that skipping meals will help them to do so but it doesn’t help at all, in fact, it is detrimental to one’s health.”
“If you skip a meal say breakfast and lunch and then you take only dinner since your stomach is empty then you will just end up eating a lot to cover the meals you have skipped because normally the body has a compensatory mechanism.”
According to him, for a person to understand if she or he needs to start cutting down weight then Body Mass Index (BMI) can be a good determinant. “This is weight over height and the normal Index is supposed to be between 18.5 up to 30 and if one is below 18.5 then we consider her to be underweight and if they exceed 30 then they are overweight; so this factor should be taken into account before one declares she needs to lose weight or not,” explains the expert. Santa Muro, a fitness professional from Azura Health and Fitness Centre says exercising is important for those who wish to cut weight, maintain and even gain some weight too.
But for better results, the trainer suggests that one needs to undergo fitness assessment which involves cardio activities, one of the most important things to do for a body, whether someone wants to lose weight, burn fat or improve their health.
Plenty of choices
“There are plenty of choices for cardio exercises. Anything that gets your heart rate will work. Also there are other physical activities one can do such as skipping rope, walking, jogging – this all depends on a person’s preference.
“It is recommended that one should do 50-60 minute cardio activities per day and 4 to 5 times a week which makes it 250 – 300 minutes a week. If proper schedule is observed this includes following a proper diet schedule then a person following these rules is expected to lose 0.5 up to 1 kilogramme per week,” says the trainer.
With hundreds of products out there claiming to offer a slimmer, leaner body in a bottle of colourful capsules, some companies have been making a lot of profit as women flock seeking chemical ways to cut down weight.
“Some of my clients want something easy, a quick fix,” says John Kianga, one of the members who sell products from an international company based in Dar es Salaam for the last two years. “Some women come to me looking for diet supplements, I do sell them but some of them can’t afford the whole package which costs more than Sh200,000. They instead take in portions, but we tell them that they need to exercise well and not just leave the supplement to do the magic,” says John
Nutritionist and lifestyle expert, Odria Constantine says crash diets or supplements are not the best options for those who wish to cut down weight. She says today’s women are very conscious when it comes to their physical appearance to such an extent that many would do anything to see that it happens. “One reason that women struggle to lose weight is that many of them are not that happy when they see how they appear, some of them complain how bigger their stomachs are while some of them just want to maintain their physical appearance,” she explains
However, she cautions those who look for shortcuts to cut off weight by opting to take drugs or supplements, saying that they are doing more harm to their bodies than good. “First of all these supplements do differ and one thing they need to put in mind is that these people who sell these supplements are business people therefore they would do anything to sell their products. People who use these supplements may develop diarrhoea, therefore they become dehydrated so once they check their weight it shows that they have lost weight,” further stating; “What they need to do is cut weight in a healthy lifestyle through dieting and exercising based on the body size they desire. They need to watch out on what they eat and the kind of lifestyle they live. “Women need 1,800 calories per day while men need 2,000 calories. So it happens that you have eaten more than what is needed by the body then you need to do something to make sure that those extra calories are burned.”
