There have been two excellent recent articles published saying that the #1 risk factor for being hospitalized or dying is … large amounts of excess body fat.

First, here’s a quote from Dr. Michael Osterholm, the man widely regarded as the top infectious disease epidemiologist in the world:

“Right now, among those people who we see having severe disease under age 55, obesity is the number one risk factor.“

Here’s another one from this article:

Cardiologist Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian says “If someone has moderate obesity … they’re about four-fold more likely to be hospitalized, if they have severe obesity … they have a six-fold higher risk of being hospitalized.” The article went on to say “Obesity was more important in determining hospitalization than high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer and kidney disease. In fact, after age, it was the biggest factor driving hospitalizations.”

Now, here’s the part that many people are not aware of…

If you’re very overweight, you are not destined to be this way forever. You absolutely can do something about it! And it may not take nearly as long as you think…

According to Mozaffarian, a surprising amount.

“People think that if you’re obese, it takes years and years to deal with that and get healthy” … “But many well-controlled trials have shown that if you’re overweight or obese and have poor metabolic health, and you just change what you eat … within four to six weeks, [there are] dramatic improvements in many metabolic parameters.”

So there has literally NEVER been a better time, or a more compelling reason to take charge of your weight and metabolic health.

– Ari