It is of course really important that you find ways of controlling your weight as this will help your condition, make you feel better and also put less strain on your heart which is always put under strain by the symptoms that you get such as breathlessness, exhaustion etc when you have PH, COPD etc.
A year ago I weighed eighty kilograms now I weigh sixty nine. I can`t say that I feel any better for it but that is down to other factors but I am sure that it has helped me losing this weight. My BMI indicated I was overweight when I was up at eighty kilograms but now my BMI is in the healthy weight range which is where we all should aim to be.
Starvation and fad diets are not the way in my opinion to lose wight its just down to a few simple rules and commonsense.You need to train yourself not to snack in between meals and if you do eat a piece of fruit rather than a packet of crisps or some biscuits.Far to many of us skip meals and eat snacks rather than having three good meals a day and I think that is unhealthy and what leads to many being overweight. I also think you need to think what you eat. Try to eat fruit, vegetables, rice, salads etc. Keep away from the high calorie unhealthy processed food things such as pies and pizzas etc.I also think its important to restrict your fluid intake especially if you have PH and have a problem with fluid retention.Don`t go mad on that and adjust things if the weather is warm but try to restrict your intake to one and a half to two litres per day.We just need to follow a few sensible rules, show a bit of self discipline and we can help ourselves by making sure that we don`t balloon up with weight. I am a great believer that we must always remember that the doctors can do so much to help us but we have a role to play in controlling and managing our condition as well and we should not neglect our part no matter how awful we feel at times.
