Heart disease and weight: A Cardiologist shares 6 diet and exercise tips to stay fit  |  Photo Credit: Getty Images

New Delhi: Maintaining a healthy weight is imperative for overall health, and can help you prevent and control a multitude of diseases. If you are obese or overweight, you are at maximum risk of developing serious health problems, including, hypertension, heart disease, respiratory problems, gallstones, type 2 diabetes mellitus and certain kind of cancers. Ensuring that you maintain ideal body weight is an important factor when it comes to your heart. Thetheme for this years World Heart Day, My Heart, Your Heart, represents a promise to oneself, our family and the community to take steps in reducing the risk of heart diseases. As we inch closer to the day, lets make better lifestyle decisions to bring down this risk. But before we tell you what can be done to maintain a healthy weight, let us understand a few things, including cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden in our country and how obesity is linked to heart health.

According to reports, being 20% over your ideal weight significantly increases your risk for developing heart disease, especially if you have a lot of abdominal fat or belly fat. The American Heart Association states that even if there are no related health conditions, obesity itself increases risk of heart disease by multifold. There are several factors that can contribute to a persons weight such as family history, genetics, environment, metabolism, habits and behaviour. While we cannot alter certain risk factors for heart disease, we can certainly take control of our lifestyle habits.

According to The Lancet study, prevalent cases of cardiovascular diseases increased in India from 25.7 million in 1990 to 54.5 million in 2016. Prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in 2016 was highest in Kerala, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, and West Bengal.

This theme for this years World Heart Day, My Heart, Your Heart, represents a promise to oneself, our family and the community to take steps in reducing the risk of heart diseases. As we inch closer to the day, lets make better lifestyle decisions to bring down this risk. But before we tell you what can be done to maintain a healthy weight, let us understand how obesity is linked to heart health.

Being overweight is nothing but an excess of body weight from muscle, fat and bone. Therefore, it is important to evaluate/measure obesity via regular Body Mass Index (BMI) check-ups. An obese individuals cardiac requirements are higher, it is required to pump larger amounts of blood. Over a period of time, in some individuals, the heart cannot compensate, and eventually, it begins to lose some of its ability to pump blood to the rest of the body. And when over overstressed, it can lead to heart failure.

It is hard to maintain preferred bodyweight regardless of where you are in your weight loss journey. However, you may know that consuming certain types of food can spike your heart disease risks. Whether you have years of unhealthy eating under your belt or you simply wanted to fine-tune your diet, all you must know is - what foods to eat, with what frequency and which foods to restrict.

Another important aspect is that exercising isan important driver of physical fitness and weight loss. Exercising should never be an option. An ideal combination of diet and exercise regimen is important, once this is in place, youll be on your way towards leading a heart-healthy life. Six heart-healthy tips to consider are as follows:

Control your portion size: How much you eat is just as significant as what you eat. Putting extra on your plate and eating till the time you are stuffed can lead to overconsumption of calories. Use a small bowl or plate to help control your portions. Eat larger portions of low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods, such as vegetables & fruits, and smaller portions of high-calorie, high-sodium foods, such as refined, fast foods/ processed. This trick can shape up your diet as well as your waistline.

Cut sodium in your food: Excess Sodium intake can contribute to high blood pressure, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Reducing salt consumption is a vital part of a heart-healthy diet. Salt that comes from processed foods or canned products, for instance - frozen dinner soups and baked goods, is especially harmful. Consumption of fresh foods and making your own soups and stews can lessen the amount of salt you consume.

Choose low-fat protein sources: Fish, lean meat, poultry, low-fat dairy products and eggs are a few great sources of protein. One must be careful while choosing low-fat options, like choosing skimmed milk rather than whole milk, and skinless chicken breasts instead of fried chicken patties. Peas, beans and lentils also are good sources of protein - they consist of less fat and no cholesterol making them good substitutes for meat. Substituting plant-based protein for animal protein, for example, replacing hamburger with a soybean burger will reduce your fat and cholesterol intake and increase your fibre intake.

Limit unhealthy fats and sugar: Controlling how much saturated and trans-fats you consume is an essential step to moderate your blood cholesterol level and lower your threat of coronary artery disease. Increased blood cholesterol level can result in a build-up of plaque in your arteries that are known as atherosclerosis, which can significantly increase your risk of stroke and heart attack.

Also, it is a proven fact that junk food has large amounts of sodium, artificial food colourants, hidden calories, etc. They may be delectable in taste, but they lead to weight gain. Consumption of unmodulated amounts of junk, over a period of time, results in heart diseases, blindness, kidney disease, foot gangrene, etc. This occurs due to hardening and development of blockages of the blood vessels pumping blood in and out of the various organ in our body.

Exercises to shed bodyweight: In order to shed access fat, it is imperative that one must exercise to get the body into a calorie deficit. Therefore, one must attempt to burn more fat/calories instead of eating calorie-dense meals each day. One of the most effective exercises is weight training combined with a cardiovascular exercise such as cycling, jogging, swimming, dancing & skipping - they are all active methods of cardio. Doing these for a couple of days in a week will certainly help you to get closer to your weight loss goals. The entire motive should be to at least put the heart rate up for about 30-60 minutes daily.

Bariatric surgery: Obesity is a harsh reality of this century, coupled with type 2 diabetes mellitus, it is the most severe life-threatening and costly epidemic. Non-surgical approaches have a few limited possibilities. When all non-surgical options have been exhausted, talking to your physician about metabolic surgery/bariatric surgery would be a good idea. This remains the sole hope for a healthier future of those who are obese and striving to maintain a healthy heart but have exhausted all corrective actions.

(Disclaimer: The author, Dr Zakia Khan, Interventional Cardiologist at Fortis Hospital, Kalyan, is a guest contributor and a part of our medical expert panel. Views expressed are personal)

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Heart disease and weight: A cardiologist shares 6 diet and exercise tips to maintain a healthy weight - Times Now