Weight Loss without Worry

     A woman’s body shape is no longer dismissed as something cosmetic, new research is now proving that many health conditions and possibly life span may be linked to how the body carries excess fat.

     For simplicity sake, there are two main female body types – an apple or a pear.  A woman is described as having an apple shape if she carries excess weight around her waist.  But if fat tends to be stored around the hips and thighs, then a woman would be considered pear-shaped.

     Dr. Marie Savard wrote in her book Apples and Pears: The Body Shape Solution for Weight Loss and Wellness that a woman’s body shape is an important indicator of future health risks.  "Most people think of fat as an inert material but, in fact, it’s a living, hormone-producing, metabolically active tissue." 

     According to Dr. Savard, Apple-shaped women tend to have more male hormones called androgens than pear-shaped women and therefore lay down fat in more of a male pattern, a.k.a. around the waist.  This type of fat tends to pack itself around the inner organs of the abdomen and has also been linked to an increased risk of hearth disease.  This makes apple-shaped women "more likely to die before the menopause, of the same causes and at the same rates as men."  Pear-shaped women, who tend to carry their weight lower, in the hips and thighs, have a much lower rate of heart attack, regardless of their overall weight.

     But this advantage changes for the pear-shaped woman after menopause when they start to lay down more fat around the waist and begin to experience many of the same health problems as the apple-shaped woman. 

     The good news is that we can improve our overall health picture no matter what our body shape.  A healthy diet and exercise program works for everyone.