60 pounds in 30 days-16

Overweight people develop extra tissue in the back of the throat. When your body relaxes while you sleep, these tissues fall down and block your airway. It can make you stop breathing throughout the night, which can lead to a variety of health problems, especially heart problems. Being a little thinner can often help treat sleep apnea - sometimes enough that you can stop using bulky breathing devices to treat it.

The extra weight makes your blood push harder against the walls of your arteries. It also makes your heart work harder. If you reduce the number on the scale by 5%, you can reduce the pressure by about 5 points. By eating less salt and more vegetables, fruits, and low-fat dairy products, you're likely to lower your salt intake even further

One study showed that older women who lost at least 5 percent of their body weight had a 12 percent lower chance of developing breast cancer. There's no clear evidence that losing weight protects you from other types of effects, but some of the changes that happen when you lose weight hint that it might. For example, overweight people who lose weight have lower levels of certain hormones linked to cancer, such as estrogen, insulin, and androgens.

An increase of just 10 pounds increases the pressure on the knees and other joints in the lower body by 40 pounds. This will make them wear out faster. Excess fat also causes inflammation and chemicals in your body that over time can damage your own tissues, including your joints. Even a little weight loss can alleviate these effects. If you don't, you are much less likely to develop arthritis later in life

The brain needs enough vitamins and minerals to function. When people lose weight, they tend to eat better foods with higher levels of antioxidants, which improves memory ability.