Being overweight increases your risk for high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure, two of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease. Even if you do not have high blood cholesterol or high blood pressure, being overweight may increase your risk for heart disease. Where you carry your extra weight may affect your risk too. Weight carried at your waist or above seems to be associated with an increased risk for heart disease in many people. In addition, being overweight increases your risk for diabetes, gallbladder disease, and some types of cancer.

If you are overweight, losing weight helps to lower your high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure.

The average weight gain after quitting smoking is 5 pounds. The proportion of ex-smokers who gain large amounts of weight (greater than 20 pounds) is relatively small. Even if you do gain a few pounds after quitting, don't reach for the cigarettes. Change your eating and exercise habits to lose weight rather than starting to smoke again. Smokers who quit smoking decrease their risk of heart disease by about 50 percent compared to those people who do not quit.

Weight loss, if you are overweight, may reduce your blood pressure even if you don't reduce the amount of sodium you eat. Weight loss is recommended for all overweight people who have high blood pressure. Even if weight loss does not reduce your blood pressure to normal, it may help you cut back on your blood-pressure medications.

Some people with high blood pressure are very sensitive to salt, while others are not. However, almost everyone can benefit from a trial of a lower salt diet. While eating less sodium may not reduce blood pressure to normal, your blood pressure medications are likely to work better in combination with a low salt diet.

Eating fewer calories and exercising more is the best way to lose weight and keep it off. Weight control is a question of balance. You get calories from the food you eat. You burn off calories by exercising. Cutting down on calories is key to losing weight. Combining this with a regular exercise program, like walking, bicycling, jogging or swimming, not only can help in losing weight but also in maintaining the weight loss. A steady weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds a week is safe for most adults, and the weight is more likely to stay off over the long run. Losing weight, if you are overweight, helps to reduce your blood pressure and exercise raises your HDL-cholesterol, the "good" cholesterol.

To cut calories, some people regularly skip meals and have no snacks or caloric drinks in between. Just skipping a meal and then eating more at the next one doesn't work.

The secret is moderation. Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil and non-hydrogenated vegetable oils used for cooking and salads can add the taste that makes a low-calorie diet enjoyable. But fats must be used sparingly since they have more than twice the caloric density of carbohydrates.

The most important change is to decrease your daily caloric intake. Sugar has not been found to cause obesity; however, many foods high in sugar are also high in fat. Fat has more than twice the calories as the same amount of protein or carbohydrates (sugar and starch). Thus, foods that are high in fat are high in calories. High-sugar foods, like cakes, cookies, candies, and ice cream, are high in fat and calories and low in vitamins, minerals, and protein.

All fats — polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated — have the same number of calories per gram. All calories count whether they come from saturated or unsaturated fats. But don't eat extra carbohydrates to compensate. The carbohydrate calories can add up quickly, even the healthy complex, whole-grain kind.