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One of the challenges many of us have is keeping our weight in check.

Getting rid of that excess body fat is of primary concern to many although their reasons may mostly be for appearance purposes only. Yet excess body fat poses greater problems than simple appearance.

Here are some of the many dangers of excess body fat:

Excess body fat has been associated with some of the major physical threats to human life such as diabetes and heart problems.

According to the studies done these physical threats account for most of the deaths in North America each year and these deaths in heavily linked to life-style factors. If you are an obese person chances are you use up more energy just trying to breathe normally. This is so because your heart is working much harder to pump blood to the vital organs and the excess body fat throughout your body. This can lead to an enlarged heart, high blood pressure and other serious health problems.

Excess body fat is also associated with high cholesterol levels and this condition makes a person more at risk for arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is the narrowing of the arteries which can lead to the vital organs being deprived of blood. When the heart has to pump harder to move blood around the body there may be a rise in blood pressure. High blood pressure can lead to a number of health risks such as heart attack and stroke. Research suggests that close to a quarter of the heart and blood vessel problems can be traced directly to obesity without any signs of weight loss.

There have been clinical studies that have shown a connection between excess body fat and the occurrence of cancer. It is believed that body fat may store cancer-causing chemicals.

Excess body fat has a connection to higher breast cancers rates in women and colon cancer in men.

You body is so designed that it has a kind of balance that exists between your body fat, blood sugar and the level on insulin in your body. If your body has excess blood sugar it stores it in the vital organs. The excess blood sugar is then turned into fat and once these fat cells are also full, they cause more insulin to be produced than can be used, overwhelming the system.

This in turn may lead to diabetes which can cause long term health problems including heart disease, blindness, and kidney problems.

Other diseases also linked to excess body fat include gall bladder disease, sexual dysfunction, and stroke.

It therefore stands to reason that if you reduce your excess body fat you can also reduce the risk of disease.

This will however take some commitment and consistency.