Are your jeans making you fat?

I love wearing jeans. They are comfortable and fashionable, extremely versatile as they can be dressed up or down to look stunning. And they can be worn at any age with or without a belt, with flat shoes or the highest of heels and, of course, boots. The key is that they suit YOU as a unique individual and that they actually fit! This is where, unfortunately, wearing jeans can go pear-shaped.

Amazingly, some fashion designers are creating jeans with sewn-in mock tops of men's briefs so that they show above the waistband and the low-cut hipster jeans look as though they are falling off, whilst some girls' jeans now can be bought with a sewn-in mock thong top appearing above the jeans!

I am the wrong age to comment on whether this is attractive, acceptable or appropriate but my biggest problem is that, with a growing incidence of obesity, particularly with the young, most teenagers who insist on wearing jeans that are simply too small for them are creating a muffin-top of overhanging flesh. Maybe they like to look like that. Perhaps showing a 'muffin-top' is cool? I am yet to find anyone who thinks it is attractive. But there is a serious side to this fashion habit that probably many folk don’t realise.

When we continually wear an item of clothing that fits or ‘digs-in’ in a certain position, the fat that we all have around our body is squeezed out of the way. To check this out just take off your wedding ring and see the indentation made by your ring on your finger. It is because of this that women have a little fat showing above and below their bra strap and men have ‘love handles’ above where their trousers sit. This is unavoidable as we have to wear clothes that ‘rest’ on certain areas of our body,. If women wear a full brief or pant all the time, (it doesn’t apply if you wear a thong), they will see an indentation on the cheeks of their backside where the elastic around the top of the legs usually digs in a little. As a result they won’t like the shape of their bottom when they see themselves undressed. Wearing a thong will eliminate this over time. So, back to the tight-fitting hipster jeans.

Wearing low-cut jeans will have the effect of pushing abdominal fat upwards. The low-cut style necessitates that the jeans are tight fitting (or they would fall down) and the result is the creation of a muffin-top overhang. Wear this style of jean very regularly, and your accumulation of fat above the hip-band will be there, even when you take them off, and it will reshape your figure and reduce the slimness of your waist and make your stomach fatter. After all, the fat has nowhere else to go.

So what is the answer? Losing some weight will help as if you lose the fat it can’t be squeezed around as much. Vary the style of your underwear and wearing a thong is actually very comfortable once you get used to it – just buy the size bigger than you would wear with a normal pant. If you want to wear hipster jeans, just don’t wear them all the time. Ideally, vary the hip/waist band height with differently fitting jeans. And lastly, regularly undertake some aerobic exercise which will help burn body fat and do some stomach flattening exercises so that you tone up that area.

Check out our website for details of my DVDs or our diet and fitness classes which will help you achieve that.

The increasing cost of obesity

So the NHS are having to invest in super-sized beds, super-strong operating tables and lifting equipment to cope with an ever increasing size of patient. We have known for years that the cost of obesity to the NHS is astronomical and unless we turn the trend of the nation becoming fatter, potentially, obesity will break the NHS bank! It is no surprise then that the latest report from the government is highlighting this point in another attempt to encourage us to take action to change our lifestyles and become slimmer and fitter.

We are very fortunate in the UK that if we become ill a doctor will see us and a hospital will admit us for treatment if necessary, free of charge, in an attempt to make us better. But there are so many illnesses - heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, some cancers as well as painful joint problems - that could be prevented, or at least greatly reduce the risk of developing, if only we were to feed ourselves healthily, reduce our weight to a healthy level and do more physical activity as part of our lifestyle.

Interestingly, research has proven that if we reduce our weight by just 10% we can significantly reduce the risk of all of these conditions. Why not visit http://www.obesityawareness.co.uk/ to check out your health/weight rating.

Within our organisation we have every resource, every support and service to help anyone to lose weight and become healthier. Check out our website if you need help.

Healthy school dinners

Healthy school dinners are in the news again and I think the government has to be very careful not to push children away from eating moderately healthy food by making the food too different to what they are used to eating. It took 20 years to get the great British public to reduce their smoking habits dramatically. Gently, gently is my philosophy for helping children to eat more healthily and I think we should increase the effort to encourage them to become much more active. It is kids’ inactivity that is the biggest cause of children’s obesity – not the food. We are working towards a programme for children which will be launched on 16th April. Watch this space!

Jade Goody's death

It was sad to wake up this morning to the news that Jade Goody had lost her battle with cervical cancer in the early hours of this morning. I know nothing of Jade's lifestyle other than what has been reported in the press but what IS shocking is this young mum of two little boys has died at the young age of 27. Cancer could happen to any of us and often we can have illnesses that linger beneath the surface and we don't realise it until it is too late to turn our health around. What it does highlight is the importance of investing towards our future well being by eating healthily, taking plenty of exercise and keeping our weight to within healthy limits. We sponsor a website that helps folk to make a quick assessment of where they are on the healthy-weight barometer. It's free, just log on to http://www.obesityawareness.co.uk/ if you'd like to check yourself out.

Right, we're off for a walk with Waise our dog now - she's been trying to get me to go with her all morning - and I'm looking forward to a healthy lunch of fresh soup with some fresh bread that Mike's baked this morning. I'm looking forward to my daughter coming over this afternoon for Mother's Day so all in all, it's a good day to be alive - and healthy.

Obesity danger rivals smoking

The report out today by a group of Oxford University experts, which warns that obesity is as hazardous to health as smoking, shortening life by a decade, just goes to reinforce the importance of controlling our weight, eating a healthier diet and taking regular exercise. By taking some relatively simple steps we can dramatically improve our weight and health. Visit my website, http://www.rosemaryconley.com for help and support.