How Even a Small Amount of Weight Loss Can Impact Your Health 

Do you feel overwhelmed when you think about losing weight? Would it help to know that you don’t need to reach your endgame to improve your health?

It’s true. You can significantly improve your health and prevent chronic conditions like high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes after losing a small amount of weight.

Our weight loss experts at Premiere Medical Center in Toluca Lake, California, have helped many patients regain optimal health while achieving a healthy weight.

Most people feel discouraged thinking about the total weight they want to lose. We motivate them by emphasizing the health advantages they gain for every small step forward.

What’s a small amount of weight loss?

Even if your overall weight loss goal is higher, your health improves after losing just 5%-10% of your weight. If you weigh 200 pounds, that translates to 10-20 pounds. 

While many conditions start getting better with a 5% loss, the range varies. Some health problems improve after losing 2%, while you experience a significant difference in others after dropping 10% or more.

Health benefits from weight loss

Here are six health conditions that improve with minimal weight loss:

1. High cholesterol

Losing 5% of your weight helps lower total cholesterol and triglycerides. It also increases good cholesterol, which removes bad cholesterol from your bloodstream.

High cholesterol causes fatty plaque that sticks to artery walls. Over time, the plaque enlarges and hardens, restricting blood flow through the vessel.

Atherosclerosis can develop in arteries throughout your body but frequently affects arteries carrying blood to your heart, brain, kidneys, and legs.

2. High blood pressure

Being overweight or obese causes 65%-78% of all cases of high blood pressure. It only takes a 5% increase in body weight to lead to a 20%-30% increase in cases of hypertension. At the same time, losing 5%-10% of your weight decreases blood pressure.

3. Type 2 diabetes

Being overweight is one of the leading causes of Type 2 diabetes. The more you weigh, the higher your risk. Excess body fat affects insulin production, leading to high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and diabetes.

However, losing 5%-10% of your weight lowers blood sugar nearly as well as some medications. Studies show an average weight loss of 7% may reduce the incidence of diabetes by 58%.

4. Heart disease

High cholesterol, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes are the top causes of heart disease. However, carrying too much weight also contributes to heart problems; every extra pound of fat forces your heart to work harder to pump blood.

Losing 5% of your weight improves your heart health and lowers your risks. The benefit increases the more pounds you shed.

5. Osteoarthritis

Gaining 10 pounds increases the pressure on your knees by 30-60 pounds every time you take a step. It’s no surprise excess weight significantly increases your risk of osteoarthritis.

The good news is that losing weight lowers your risk as substantially as it raises it. Women who lost just 11 pounds reduced their chances of osteoarthritis by 50%.

6. Obstructive sleep apnea

Being overweight contributes to sleep apnea. The extra fat narrows the airway and limits muscle activity in the area, changes that can block airflow to your lungs. Sleep apnea requires a little more weight loss before it improves. However, you still only need to drop 10%-15%.

Lose weight with medical support

Our weight loss program includes comprehensive services. We help you set goals, create sustainable eating plans, prescribe semaglutide, and offer motivation and support. 

Call Premiere Medical Center today or book a weight loss appointment online.