One in four men and women in England is obese and we know that weight can be a big factor in pelvic floor problems - so let's give our pelvic floor a fighting chance by not overloading it!
Clinical studies show that reducing your body weight will help both with stress urinary incontinence and prolapse.
Prolapse Problems and Weight Loss Problems - A Double Whammy
We hear it every day here at Kegel8 - it's hard to feel good about yourself when your body is falling apart around you. Physiotherapist Sue Croft says 'I love this inspirational one liner from Arthur Ashe 'Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.' Sue adds 'To everyone with pelvic floor dysfunction - just make the decision to make an intervention, just start!' So, if you do need to lose weight to help your pelvic floor or prolapse make sure you start to love yourself because that will make your diet more of a success.
Give Your Weight Loss a Helping Hand!
Dr Pedro Teixeira from The Technical University of Lisbon has conducted research revealing that if you improve your body image your diet and weight loss programme will be more successful. 'Body image problems are very common amongst overweight and obese people, often leading to comfort eating and more rigid eating patterns, and are obstacles to losing weight.'
One group of women were given general health information about good nutrition, stress management, and the importance of looking after themselves whilst the other (intervention) group of dieters attended 30 weekly group sessions where issues such as exercise, emotional eating, improving body image and the recognition of, and how to overcome, personal barriers to weight loss and lapses from the diet were discussed.
The intervention group women found that the way they thought about their body improved and that concerns about body shape and size were reduced. They were better able to self-regulate their eating and they lost much more weight, losing on average 7% of their starting weight compared to less than 2% for the control group.
Dr Teixeira adds 'Our results showed a strong correlation between improvements in body image, especially in reducing anxiety about other peoples' opinions, and positive changes in eating behaviour'.
So make the change today and start your journey to a stronger more confident pelvic floor. Your body is beautiful even if it is not as robust as it used to be, even if it leaks and pours.