Wanfang Hospital’s Obesity Prevention Center urged people to follow a balanced diet and exercise regularly, citing an example of a 47-year-old man who gave up surfing the Internet and started to exercise more and shed 70kg in one year, regaining control over his health.
The man, surnamed Lin (林) said he had always been chubby growing up, but after being injured in a car accident about 10 years ago, he fell into a sedentary lifestyle and his weight ballooned.
Lin said that for the past decade, he spent nearly all of his free time sitting in front of the television, surfing the Internet or sleeping, and would sometimes sit in front of the computer for six hours while eating deep-fried food.
Lin is 1.61m tall, but his weight increased to as much as 151kg at one point, and he was diagnosed with type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood-sugar levels, as well as sleep apnea (pauses in breathing or instances of shallow or infrequent breathing during sleep), so he had to wear a continuous positive airway pressure nasal mask during sleep.
“I always panted heavily when climbing stairs. For example, because I sleep on the third floor, I had to rest one or two times when climbing up three flights of stairs,” he said, adding that he finally decided to join a weight loss course at the hospital’s Obesity Prevention Center last year.
Lin said that in addition to maintaining a balanced diet, he decided to cut off all Internet access at home and replaced his smartphone with a feature phone to force himself to go out more often and exercise.
His weight dropped to 74kg in one year.
Wanfang Hospital physiotherapist Lin Yen-nung (林硯農) said sedentary lifestyles are one of the main reasons for obesity, and that obesity is an important factor in sleep apnea.
Controlling intake of calories and following a balanced diet are both important in losing weight, center nutritionist Fang Ching-i (方晴誼) said, adding that eating more vegetables and protein is important, as is avoiding deep-fried food, spicy hot pot (麻辣鍋) and processed foods, which are usually high in fat.
STAY AWAY: An official said people should avoid disturbing snakes, as most do not actively attack humans, but would react defensively if threatened Taitung County authorities yesterday urged the public to stay vigilant and avoid disturbing snakes in the wild, following five reported snakebite cases in the county so far this year. Taitung County Fire Department secretary Lin Chien-cheng (林建誠) said two of the cases were in Donghe Township (東河) and involved the Taiwan habus, one person was bit by a Chinese pit viper near the South Link Railway and the remaining two were caused by unidentified snakes. He advised residents near fields to be cautious of snakes hiding in shady indoor areas, especially when entering or leaving their homes at night. In case of a
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
RSS