The importance of maintaining a healthy weight can be attributed to a wide variety of factors. Here are the five most important reasons:
Risks to health: Being overweight or obese raises the possibility of contracting a number of serious illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and several forms of cancer.
Life quality: Being overweight might make it harder to participate in physical activity, which lowers life quality.
Mental health: Research has shown that being overweight or obese increases the risk of mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
Longevity: According to studies, folks who are overweight or obese have a larger risk of dying young than those who keep a healthy weight.
Social stigma: Being overweight is frequently stigmatized in society, which can result in emotions of embarrassment, exclusion, and prejudice.
We will go in more detail of these most important reasons to maintain a healthy weight.
Health Risks
Numerous major health conditions, can be increased by being overweight or obese. Here are some of the possible conditions that can have an increased chance of developing:
Heart disease: Being overweight increases the chance of having a heart attack, a stroke, and other cardiovascular issues because it puts more strain on the heart and blood vessels.
Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disorder that develops when the body is unable to utilise and store glucose efficiently. Being overweight or obese is a major risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes (a type of sugar).
Obesity and excess weight can increase blood pressure, which can harm blood vessels and raise the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other health issues.
Obesity and increased risk of developing some cancers, such as breast, colon, and kidney cancer, have been linked in several studies.
Osteoarthritis: Being overweight increases the likelihood of developing this ailment, which causes pain and stiffness in the joints by putting more load on the joints.
Obesity and weight gain can raise the risk of developing sleep apnea, a condition that interferes with breathing while you sleep.
Obesity is a risk factor for gallbladder disease, which can result in discomfort, inflammation, and further issues with the gallbladder.
Kidney disease: Being overweight can harm the kidneys and raise your risk of developing the condition, which can cause kidney failure.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Obesity is a significant risk factor for this ailment, which develops when fat builds up in the liver and can cause serious health issues.
A crucial step in lowering the risk of these and other significant health disorders is maintaining a healthy weight.
Quality of Life
Being overweight might make it more challenging to exercise, which can impair one’s quality of life. There are several reasons for this, including:
Physical discomfort: Being overweight can lead to physical discomfort, such as joint pain and respiratory problems, which can make it harder to exercise.
Reduced mobility: Being overweight or obese can cause problems with mobility, making it harder to move around and carry out daily duties.
Low self-esteem: Being overweight can result in low self-esteem and a negative body image, which can make it harder to participate in social and physical activities.
Social isolation: Being overweight is frequently stigmatized in society, which can cause feelings of embarrassment, exclusion, and prejudice. Social interaction and participation in activities may be more challenging as a result.
It could be simpler to exercise and live a more active and happy lifestyle if you keep a healthy weight.
Mental Health
Obesity and being overweight have been associated with a higher risk of mental health problems like depression and anxiety. There are several reasons for this, including:
Obesity is frequently stigmatized in society, which can result in emotions of shame, loneliness, and prejudice. The mental health of people may suffer as a result.
Low self-esteem: Being overweight can result in a negative body image and low self-esteem, which can exacerbate mental health problems.
Distress and frustration can result from physical discomfort brought on by being overweight, such as joint pain and respiratory problems.
Health issues: Being overweight or obese raises your risk of acquiring a number of major health issues that can be stressful and anxiety-inducing.
It could be feasible to lower the chance of experiencing mental health problems and enhance general wellbeing by keeping a healthy weight.
Reasons to not be overweight
Longevity
According to studies, those who are overweight or obese are more likely to die young than those who keep a healthy weight. This is due to the fact that being overweight raises your risk of contracting a number of dangerous illnesses, including as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and some types of cancer, all of which can cause you to pass away before your time.
Additionally, independent of the presence of other risk factors, obesity is linked to a higher risk of death from any cause. This implies that, regardless of other considerations, excess weight may have a detrimental effect on general health and wellbeing.
It could be able to extend life and lower the risk of premature death by keeping a healthy weight. For this reason, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy weight over the course of your life.
Social stigma
Obesity is frequently stigmatized in society, which can result in emotions of embarrassment, exclusion, and prejudice. There are several reasons for this, including:
Negative stereotypes: People who are obese are frequently portrayed negatively in the media and may be the subject of jokes and jeers.
Prejudice at work: According to certain research, obese people are more likely to be passed over for promotions and job openings and may experience workplace discrimination.
Social isolation: Being overweight is frequently stigmatized, which can result in feelings of guilt and loneliness and make it more difficult to establish and maintain relationships with others.
Health stigma: Obesity may be perceived by some as a character flaw or a lack of self-control, which can cause shame and stigma.
The social stigma associated with obesity can have negative effects on a person’s mental health and general wellbeing. Keeping a healthy weight may make it less likely to experience discrimination and social stigma.
In conclusion, there are a variety of plausible causes for why it’s critical to keep a healthy weight. Being overweight or obese raises one’s risk of contracting a number of serious illnesses, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Because of the physical discomfort and restricted mobility, it can also result in a lower quality of life. Being overweight or obese has been linked to a higher risk of early death and a higher risk of mental health problems like depression and anxiety. Additionally, obesity is frequently stigmatized in society, which causes emotions of embarrassment, exclusion, and prejudice. Maintaining a healthy weight can assist to lower the chance of developing major health disorders, improve quality of life, and promote overall health and wellbeing.
There is sometimes ambiguity surrounding the definition of the word “obesity,” which is used frequently. Does it apply to everybody who is overweight or needs to drop some weight? Or does it go beyond that? Both the phrase “overweight” and “obesity” have medical definitions.
Overweight: What Is It?
Based on body mass index, overweight is defined medically (BMI). Since BMI is expressed in kilograms per square meter, both height and weight must be entered into the formula.
A BMI of 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m2 is considered overweight.
1 A BMI that falls between 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal. One is considered underweight if their BMI is under 18.5. Body Mass Index (BMI) is an outmoded, unreliable indicator. It disregards elements including age, race, sex, ethnicity, and physical composition.
BMI is still frequently employed in the medical industry despite being a biased assessment since it is a quick and affordable approach to assessing a person’s probable health status and consequences.
The term “overweight” is now used in medical terminology both as an adjective and as a noun (as in “obesity and overweight”). Such language has the effect of emphasizing that obesity and being overweight are symptoms of a disease process; more on that later.
The BMI calculation determines the medical definition of obesity, just like it does for being overweight. A patient must have a BMI of 30.0 or more to be considered obese. 1? National standards advise using a BMI cutoff of 40.0 or higher, which is sometimes referred to as “morbid obesity,” to determine whether patients may be candidates for bariatric surgery.
Naturally, it should be mentioned that some highly muscular athletes may have a high BMI that is caused by their higher muscle weight rather than by body fat. BMI is therefore meant to be a small component of a larger clinical evaluation.
Why Is It Important?
Numerous studies have demonstrated that as BMI rises, there is an increased risk of both poorer health outcomes (in terms of conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, obstructive sleep apnea, diabetes, high blood pressure, and others) as well as overall premature death. 2 Additionally, the clinical definition of obesity—a BMI of 30.0 or higher—is frequently utilized to choose the best course of action.
Insurance coverage and the kinds of treatments that might be deemed medically essential are also affected. The American Medical Association (AMA) formally recognized obesity as a disease in 2013, stating that it “requires the medical care, research, and education attention of other important worldwide medical disorders” due to its tremendous humanitarian and economic impact. 3
The American College of Cardiology (ACCF), The Obesity Society (TOS), and the American Heart Association (AHA) also released new, eagerly awaited obesity guidelines in 2013, which were titled “2013 ACCF/AHA/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults.”
In addition to increasing public awareness of the issue, the official recognition of obesity as a chronic condition is anticipated to have an impact on policy at all levels. Third-party payers may be more likely to pay physicians and other healthcare professionals for the treatment and management of obesity as a recognized condition, whereas policymakers may feel a stronger need to fund and execute programs for treating and intervening with obesity.
Since 2004, obesity has been classified as a chronic condition by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Since 2011, Medicare has been paying for behavioral therapy for people with an obesity diagnosis. 5 This could include high-intensity behavioral therapy, dietary assessment, and screening with BMI and waist circumference. Under some conditions, bariatric surgery is also covered.
Obesity might explain a number of health issues you could experience, including:
A heart attack and a stroke
Cancer
Diabetes type 2
High blood pressure
Gallstones
High cholesterol
Joint issues brought on by excess weight
Breathing issues, such as sleep apnea, which causes you to momentarily stop breathing while you’re asleep
Small changes may be helpful.
The good news is that there are things you can do to lose weight. Additionally, even a small amount of weight loss can significantly improve both your health and your mood. It might not take as much weight loss as you might believe to start experiencing health advantages.
Aim to drop 1-2 pounds every week to start. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends that adults who are overweight or obese attempt to reduce 5% to 10% of their present weight over the course of six months.
If you’re prepared to begin a weight loss program, ask your doctor to assist you in developing personal goals and to recommend additional experts who can offer advice and support in achieving your objectives. A nutritionist, for instance, can assist you with a meal plan, while a physical therapist or trainer can encourage you to move more.
You should aim for gradual improvement over time and adopt long-term beneficial lifestyle adjustments. You can start losing weight and feeling better in this manner.
We get many questions related to weight loss. This article will go over the most common questions asked that are related to sauna use and weight loss. Here are the questions and answers in no specific order.
How long does it take to lose water weight in a sauna?
Start with 15 to 20-minute sessions once or twice a week and work up to daily sessions to get the most out of the weight reduction advantages of a sauna.
Does a sauna burn fat?
It’s thought that taking a sauna session will assist you to lose extra weight. If you share this belief, you are utterly mistaken. A sauna only briefly removes easily replacement water from the body, not aiding in weight loss. Overheating causes your body to perspire, and perspiration can cause fluid loss.
Does a sauna speed up metabolism?
According to studies, our metabolic rate can rise by about 30% following an hour in the sauna. The more calories we burn, the greater our metabolic rate is.
Does sweating burn belly fat?
The internal cooling process is a clue that you’re burning calories even though sweating doesn’t burn fat. The primary reason we perspire while exercising is that the energy we expend heats up our bodies internally.
Can you lose 5 pounds in a sauna?
You can’t solely rely on utilizing a sauna to shed pounds. This is due to the fact that all of the weight you lose while sitting in one is water weight. You perspire in the heat, releasing additional water from your body that has been stored. In one sauna session, you can lose roughly 5 pounds, but if you start drinking fluids again, you’ll gain it back.
Will a sauna help with water retention?
Although it’s important to drink water when perspiring, doing so can reduce edema and help the body remove accumulated sodium and water. Utilizing a sauna or steam room will help you retain less water; nevertheless, you must continue to drink water to stay hydrated.
How many calories do you burn in a sauna for 10 minutes?
It ranges from 100 and 333 calories for 10 minutes on average.
Sauna and Weight loss
Is a sauna or steam room better for weight loss?
While saunas are hotter and dryer, steam rooms only deliver wet heat. According to Columbia University, a sauna normally has a temperature between 160 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit and a humidity level between 5% and 30%. Unfortunately, Columbia University reports that using a sauna won’t help you lose weight either.
How often should you use a sauna for weight loss?
You might think about visiting the sauna two to three times each week, depending on your personal health and wellbeing objectives. Maybe even 4-5 times per week if you are so inclined.
How many calories do you burn in 30 minutes in a sauna?
You can burn 1.5 to 2 times as many calories as you would be sitting anywhere else for 15 to 30 minutes in the sauna. Therefore, a woman weighing 150 pounds on average would burn 68 calories every 30 minutes in a sauna. Sauna use can undoubtedly alter your way of life. They encourage both physical and emotional health.
Is the sauna just as good as cardio?
Visiting a sauna does not cause your blood pressure to drop; rather, it causes your heart rate to increase. A recent study found that this gain is even comparable to the results of a brief, moderate workout.
How many calories do you burn in a sauna for 1 hour?
It is only possible to use a sauna to help you lose weight if you are also consuming fewer calories overall. In an hour-long sauna session, some sources claim that up to 600 calories can be burned, while others claim that only 50 can be.
Should I wipe the sweat off in the sauna?
Don’t wipe until you’re completely wet. By evaporative cooling, sweat dissipates heat. Sweat absorbs 2,428 joules of energy from the body and releases heat into the environment as each gram changes from liquid to the gas phase.
Can I bring my phone to a sauna?
No, you shouldn’t bring your phone into the sauna since the high temperatures will harm the internal parts of the device. The operating temperature range for phones is 0° to 35°; any higher or lower will damage the phone’s internal parts.
As you can see, there are some differing opinions when it comes to sauna use, but we hope we were able to answer some of your questions effectively. Please let us know if you have any more questions or if you have anything to add to the above FAQs.
In this day and age, people have come up with a lot of ways to either lose weight or gain muscle mass. Fad diets have come and gone, all promising to give you a healthy body. Some even get into these diet plans without extensive research, all with the hopes to achieve their ideal body weight. Others go overboard and mess up, ending in weight gain more than muscle gain. Luckily, there are tools you can use to identify your body weight and determine if it’s healthy or not. These tools, BMI and Body Composition testing could also help you identify if you are at risk of diseases such as stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease. Despite them being used in the world of health and fitness, one could be better than the other. Which is it? What are their differences? Let’s understand each one of them starting with BMI.
Body mass index, or BMI, is a standard measurement to estimate body fat based on your height and weight. It is developed by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian scientist from the early- to mid- 1800s. It came from his vision of a simple way to determine a person’s body fat content and whether he or she was overweight or not. Medical professionals have been turning to BMI for almost 200 years when it comes to researches in regards to obesity.
BMI is calculated using an equation instead of measuring your body fat directly. The score you get from that equation is an approximation of your overall body fat content, which helps you determine if you are underweight, of normal weight, overweight or obese. Basically, BMI helps you know if a person is healthy or unhealthy in relation to their body weight. The level of a person’s BMI is a sign of the amount of fat that person has on his or her body. Meaning, if your BMI is high, it could be an indication that you have too much fat on your body, and if your BMI is low, then that could possibly mean that you have a very small amount of fat on your body. If not maintained in normal, a BMI of both high or low levels could pose several threats to your body. A low BMI can cause health problems such as anemia, bone loss, and decreased immune function. A high BMI, on the other hand, can cause several serious health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Despite its usefulness for screening bodyweight problems in both children and adults, BMI gets limited to just that. The simplicity of the formula in order to get it doesn’t even account for many other important factors, only giving us a range of normal weight in relation to our height. Criticized for its inaccuracy due to it being too broad and not actually providing anything at all about our body composition, BMI is being rigorously shot at for not being elaborate and thorough.
A person’s BMI is determined by dividing his or her weight by the square of his or her height. A normal BMI level is between 18.5 and 24.9. And even though BMI is calculated in the same way for everyone of all ages, the results are interpreted differently for children and adults.
BMI Levels
The following weight status categories are the standard interpretation for the BMI of adults of age 20 and older (same for men and women, all ages and body types) :
BMI Weight Status
Below 15.0 Very severely underweight
15.0 to 16.0 Severely underweight
16.0 to 18.5 Underweight
18.5 to 24.9 Normal
25.0 to 29.9 Overweight
30.0 to 34.9 Obese Class I (Moderate obesity)
35.0 to 39.9 Obese Class II (Severe obesity)
40.0 and above Obese Class III (Very severe obesity)
As aforementioned, the BMI of children (people below 20) is interpreted differently from that of adults. While the formula to determine the BMI for all age groups is the same, the interpretations are based on age and gender differences for children and adults. This is due to the fact that the body fat content of a person changes with age. Also note that while it is different for young boys and girls, the latter usually develop early a higher amount of body fat than boys.
While it is still being used as a standard measurement for the overall health of a collective group, such as a city or a nation, and is proven useful for recording statistics on obesity, one can’t just simply use BMI to assess a single person’s health because it has too many flaws to be used at an individual level. It could potentially overestimate the number of fat athletes and even people with muscular bodies. BMI could also underestimate the body fat content of people who have lost muscle mass and even in older people.
Now, let’s talk about Body Composition and how it is different from Body Mass Index.
As we all know by now, BMI provides a vague idea of a person’s health. And that’s where Body Composition comes in, it gives you the detailed result. To measure body leanness, it isn’t just height and weight, there are also other important factors that have to be accounted for, namely: fat, Lean Body Mass, and the amount of water in your body. This basically tells you that body composition is your way of knowing how much fat, water, lean mass, and other things your body is made up of. It tells you how much of your weight is contributed by your lean mass (water, connective tissues, muscle, and bones) and how much of it is coming from fat. With a clearer insight into your health opened up by body composition, access to the exact percentage of your body fat might be able to save you from all disease risks you could be facing. Which you wouldn’t be able to know from BMI alone. Body composition is determined using BIA, or bioelectrical impedance analysis. This sends an electrical signal throughout your body, and this signal’s interaction with all the elements of your body including fat and muscle, helps the device separate your weight into, at least, Lean Body Mass and Fat Mass. Access to body composition testing could be challenging to most people, often requiring expensive equipment and through a series of test methods, but this test gives you a deeper perception of your overall body health. It would also be able to cater to a wide range of body types, including people whose BMI is healthy but have a high-fat content in their bodies and those individuals with a healthy body fat percentage but yields unhealthy BMI result.
With all that, we can deduce that although BMI has been used for a long time to evaluate our body weight, it is time to ditch its ways and we should start looking into the bigger and clearer picture of what’s really happening inside our bodies. And to achieve that, Body Composition testing would be a tremendous help, not only to fully understand our body weight and what contributes to it, whether it be Fat Mass or Lean Body Mass but also to avoid great risks of serious diseases.
In conclusion
Body composition is not a gimmick or a fad, that could eventually go as soon as it arrives. It is a test to determine our body fat percentage and lean body mass, studied by medical professionals and scientists for decades to get a better understanding of our overall health. Find out what your body composition is now to further your healthy lifestyle journey.
Even a few years ago models found themselves out of jobs if they packed on a few pounds after a rewarding vacation in the Caribbean. Such incidents were not only extremely discriminatory they also sent a powerful yet wrong message to the common people. At the same time when health aid officials were trying to supply enough food to sustain people in troubled areas, there were gorgeous women purging their guts out in porcelain toilet bowls of 5-star restaurants.
What marked the beginning of the plus-sized era?
The cost of weight loss surgery is high. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, people’s typical costs range from $20,000 to $25,000 for procedures to augment their physique. However, with the advent of a new century came a much-needed change in prevailing fashion trends. Elle was one of the first magazines to break the “plus-size” taboo by featuring plus-size models on its covers. The editors made it a point to throw in a nude pic of the plus-size model just to mix things up and little and it surely had an impact that shook the fashion world. This issue of Elle saw a lot of niche followers and support from human rights groups and other contemporary models. Elle opened the gates of the fashion world for the plus-sized models who had forgotten to dream about a successful career. The magazine had sent out an important message to the world, fashion was evolving and maturing to suit the needs of real women who are not ready to spend their lives munching on Graham crackers only.
To bring the “plus” theme to the mainstream, even Vogue launched an online section, especially for plus-sized women. This website features blogs, interviews, and fashion statements by real-life curvy women who serve as a source of encouragement to all the other plus-sized women from around the world.
What impact did the embracing of plus size have on people?
Most real women know the plight of entering an over-priced fashion boutique. Not only are they met with utter disappointment, but the “experts” also do not deter from giving a few very necessary jibes and pieces of advice regarding the better places where these real women can shop. All in all, even a few years ago, one needed skin as thick as their waists to shop at one of the big labels.
Gladly, the gradual acceptance of plus-sized models into the fashion world changed the way most common people perceive fashion labels. Not only has it become less intimidating for larger women to walk into reputed stores, this move actually given fashion a humane persona. More than mannequins and hangers supporting ridiculously small hot couture dresses, fashion gradually became about luxury clothing, comfortable woolens, flattering shrugs, and super skinny but accommodating bottoms, once again.
The plus-sized controversy
The controversy is the lifeblood of fashion. The fashion industry and its veterans cannot thrive without controversy and gossip. However, the advent of the “plus-size” movement saw a number of changes that were both welcomed and frowned upon. To begin with, a reputed stylist walked out at the London Fashion Week 2009 when designer Mark Fast announced his decision to use plus-sized models for this show.
A more recent controversy has evolved around the denomination of the true body sizes. While most models who wear a size 10 or 12 are deemed to be plus-sized by the industry, the average size worn by women around the world is 14. This has caused a furor among feminists and women rights activists as the world of fashion is still shying away from showing the real bodies of women on the ramps and glamour shoots.
Plus sized models
Plus size vs. encouragement of unhealthy lifestyle:
There are popular views like that of Jamelia, a singer and Lose Women panelist who states that being overweight is simply unhealthy and should not be endorsed by reputed lifestyle brands and magazines. In fact, a group of scientists from Canada state that featuring obese women in magazine cover encourages people to lead an unhealthy lifestyle. Such hypotheses are being regularly challenged by the predominant cases of anorexia and bulimia which have been plaguing the modeling world for years. Years of advertising have taught us that skinny is perfect, but this comes at a cost of a healthy lifestyle and well-balanced meals. So while showing a proverbial middle-finger to the preconceived notions of fashion the voices of the real women are being heard again and many designers are dedicating new lines of clothing for the curvy hot women. Women are regaining their confidence for stepping into the smug stores which earlier only catered to the whims of the young and the skinny.
Going green:
Most agencies and labels are hiring models who represent the face of the USA. These models sport an average American look. The concept of exotic beauty with translucent skin and ridiculously angled faces are beyond passé. In addition to that, the use of plus-sized models has boosted the morale of many women in the fashion industry and has helped to build their confidence. A very interesting study shows that models with popular agencies like Ford are currently earning a whopping $15000 per day instead of the meager $125 per hour they were making earlier as a result of a wider acceptance range among the veteran designers and fashion labels.
Who are these plus sized models?
Most common women who wear sizes 10 and higher find the plus-sized models more realistic than their anorexic counterparts. The more popular image of supermodels puts forth impractical body standards which are simply impossible to attain for maximum women. This pushes them into the world of depression, bulimia, binge eating, and forceful self-starvation. However, women like Jennie Runk, Crystal Renn, Saffi Karina, Justine LeGault, and Tara Lynn are breaths of fresh air. They are the faces of new hope for thousands of women around the world who feel ridiculed every day for their body weight, thanks to these women, even designers like Ralph Lauren, Marina Rinaldi, Michael Simon, Betsy Johnson, Armani, and Jean-Paul Gaultier have started designing gorgeous clothes for the curvier women.
According to some recent studies and the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, everyone should eat a minimum of 25 grams of fiber every day. However, a larger intake of about 40 grams of fiber per day is considered more appropriate. Nutritionists and weight-loss experts suggest eating 30 to 40 grams of fiber every day to lose weight. If you are overweight, you can get back to shape by increasing your dietary fiber intake.
How does fiber intake help you lose weight?
A diet rich in fiber keeps you fuller for a longer period of time. It is because the fiber takes longer to break down and get digested compared to a diet rich in simple carbs. When you are feeling full and satisfied, you don’t reach for unscheduled snacks and cookies. Overall, you tend to eat less and it reflects on your weight that drops as you continue with your high-fiber food. When you aim to achieve 30-40 grams of fiber intake from your food, your food choices improve overall. This has an all-around impact on your health including your weight.
When you try to meet your daily quota of fiber intake, you start eating more whole grains, fruits, and veggies — that is where you find more fiber. For someone targeting weight loss, this is a good thing that instead of counting calories you are stuffing yourself with more veggies, fruits, and whole grains.
What are the other benefits of eating more fiber?
Fiber is an important nutrient for health. It helps reduce cholesterol that in turn prevents heart diseases. Since a fiber-rich food takes longer to break down and digest, it helps diabetic people by slowing down the supply of nutrients to the body. A major part of the digested food becomes glucose and gets into the bloodstream. A diabetic patient, therefore, may get a lot of sugar in a little time if he eats a carb-rich food. But if he eats a more fibrous food, the digestion will slow down and the body will get smaller doses of sugar over an extended period of time. Therefore, foods with more fiber in them are healthier for diabetic people.
Another major benefit of having more fiber in your food is that it keeps the bowel movement in a healthy state. With this kind of food, you will never struggle with constipation. How does this happen? It depends on the kind of fiber you eat.
Types of dietary fibers
When it comes to food, there are 3 types of fibers. These are soluble fibers, insoluble fibers, and fermentable fibers.
Both soluble and insoluble fibers help in digestion, but they have different roles. Soluble fibers come from things such as nuts, oats, and seeds. In the digestive tract, the soluble fibers act like a broom that sweeps, cleans, and pushes the food waste down the digestive tract. Insoluble fibers come from leafy vegetables, cabbage, and brown rice. These fibers promote bowel movement and help the passing of stool. These fibers are non-digestible so they easily get added up to the stool and increasing its bulk.
The fermentable fibers come from foods like garlic and beans. They play a very important role in the overall digestion of foods. They do this by promoting the growth of good bacteria in the digestive tract. These bacteria act similar to probiotics. You can learn more about the two types of fiber here.
How can you get 30 grams of fiber from your food?
To get 30 grams of fiber, you will need to eat 8 to 9 apples or 12 to 15 cups of broccoli. Since eating so many apples or cups of broccoli every day is not practical, you will have to draw your quota of fibers from different foods that you eat on a daily basis. Rather, you will have to include some of the more fibrous foods in your daily diet.
To conveniently cross the 30-gram fiber quota, you should aim to consume at least 10 grams of fiber in each of the 3 meals you eat every day. For an idea of how much fiber your favorite foods have, let me tell you that a medium-sized pear offers ~6 grams of fiber so does half an avocado. A cup of oatmeal has ~4 grams of fiber and quinoa has ~5 grams. Barley has a huge content of fiber — ~8 grams for every 1/4 cup. Chia seeds offer 10 grams of fiber per 30 grams and chickpeas have ~9 grams of fiber per 1/4 cup.
Other foods that have high amounts of fiber include:
Avocado
Raspberries
Pistachios
Apples
Pears
Roasted Chickpeas
Artichokes
Blackberries
Here is a list of some regular foods that are rich in fibers (Infographic):
Cereals: Eating whole grains compared to refined varieties of cereals always promises to supply more fibers to your body. Avoid added sugar in your cereals. Oat-based muesli and Bran flakes offer up to 10 grams of fiber in a 50-gram portion.
Bananas: A medium-sized banana provides 3 grams of fiber. But eat your banana just ripely, not overripe. An overripe banana is more sugar than anything else.
Apples: Apples are not a big source of fibers but they still supply 2 to 3 grams of fiber from a small apple of 80 grams.
Nuts: Nuts are another source of high-quality fibers. For every 30 grams, they supply 2 grams of soluble fiber.
Wholegrain Bread: White bread does not contain much fiber while wholegrain bread has up to 2 grams of fiber per slice of bread.
Baked Potatoes: Potatoes with skin on has more fiber. A medium-sized baked potato with the skin on has 4 grams of fiber.
Wholemeal Pasta: Whole-wheat spaghetti contains a high 8-gram of fiber from every 75 grams portion.
Pulses: Lentils, peas, and beans are good sources of fiber. 150 grams of baked beans provide 6.8 grams of fiber whereas 100 grams of boiled lentils offer 8 grams of fiber.
Can you overeat fibers?
Yes, it is possible to overeat fibers. This is more likely when you are taking fiber supplements. When you overeat fibers, you will feel it. Bloating, discomfort, nausea, gas, and even constipation are some of the signs that you have eaten more fibers than the dietary guidelines for you.
Final thoughts
A healthy intake of dietary fiber is good for your health. If you are overweight, it can help you in your weight loss plan or maintain a healthy weight. We have discussed various items that provide good amounts of fiber. You can include these items in your diet and maintain a good fiber intake.
Cereals: Eating whole grains compared to refined varieties of cereals always promises to supply more fibers to your body. Avoid added sugar in your cereals. Oat-based muesli and Bran flakes offer up to 10 grams of fiber in a 50-gram portion. 
