Weight management can be a difficult thing, especially here in the United States, where more than half of the adult population (fifty four percent of it, to be a little more exact) is trying to lose some amount of weight. Unfortunately, only one third of all adults are considered to be at a healthy weight here in this country, with one third of them overweight and the remaining one third medically classified as obese.

There are many reasons behind obesity, both among children and adults alike. For one thing, fast food restaurants have become more prevalent than ever before, with the number of fast food restaurants doubling since the year of 1970. These fast food restaurants provide delicious food as well as a great deal of convenience. But fast food restaurants also typically produce food that is high in everything from saturated fats to high levels of sodium to huge quantities of refined sugar (typically found in sodas and other fast food beverages), all of which can contribute to weight gain, often rapid weight gain at that.

In addition to this, people are often far more sedentary than what’s considered to be healthy. Unfortunately, only around five percent of all adults are getting even just thirty minutes of physical activity a day, and two thirds of this same population isn’t getting the weekly amount of exercise as well. For children, the usage of screens has become hugely detrimental to their overall levels of exercise, with many children watching TV, using phones, and using tablets for many hours of the day. Of course, this sedentary lifestyle is a huge contributing factor to obesity and general weight gain alike.

And the impact of being obese or even just overweight is likely to be profound when it comes to your health. Obesity can lead to any number of health problems, from heart disease to type 2 diabetes to a greatly increased chance of having a stroke. In fact, obesity is second behind smoking alone when it comes to preventable causes of death, at least here in the United States.

But losing weight is more difficult than many people realize, as adopting a healthier lifestyle often requires changing one’s life quite drastically. And it’s virtually impossible to do without a support system, as is agreed upon by up to seventy percent of all people in the United States. Unfortunately, however, too many people try to lose weight without one, as is the case for up to eighty percent of hopefuls looking to drop some pounds. For up to fifty percent of people who fail to lose weight, however, a lack of motivation from outside sources to keep them on track is a huge contributing factor.

Hiring a healthy lifestyle coach can help you to rectify this problem if you don’t have another support system for weight loss. A healthy lifestyle coach won’t just help you to lose the weight, but will help you to keep it off and to maintain your overall health as well. In fact, a healthy lifestyle coach can teach you about everything from the workouts best suited to your body to the foods that you should be eating. On your health journey, a healthy lifestyle coach is absolutely essential to have.

And as any healthy lifestyle coach can tell you, the benefits of an obese or even just overweight person losing weight are immense. In many cases, drastic necessary weight loss can even reverse a number of conditions that have been brought on by the weight, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as high cholesterol. And even losing a small amount, a mere five percent to ten percent of your overall body weight, has been shown to reduce your risks of developing cardiovascular disease by quite the significant amount.

A healthy lifestyle coach can also help you to devise a workout calendar that helps you to feel better than ever before as well. Such a workout routine is likely to help you build muscle, increase your endurance, and strengthen your overall body quite immensely. After all, being healthy is about so much more than just losing weight and looking trim, a point that many a healthy lifestyle coach is likely to stress.