Guest Blogger David Haas

How Weight Management Helps Cancer Patients Everyone wants to live a cancer-free life, right? Unfortunately, for some people, this just isn’t possible. Even the healthiest people can get blindsided with a cancer diagnosis. You may have never smoked, but you could find out that you have lung cancer. You may get regular checkups with your doctor and then find out that you’ve had breast cancer. You just never know. What do you do when you find out you have this horrible disease, though? Many people let it overtake their lives. You don’t have to claim defeat, though. Add exercise to your daily routine and you’ll start feeling better than you ever thought possible. Most people know that being overweight is a huge threat to their health. It’s no different when it comes to cancer patients. In fact, it’s worse to be overweight when you’re battling a disease. The body doesn’t run as efficiently as it can when you’re carrying too much weight and it can’t fight off an illness to the best of its ability. Being overweight or obese raises your risk for disease, makes it harder to fight it off once you have it and raises your chances for the disease coming back once it’s gone. People who achieve and maintain a healthy, lean body mass have much less a risk for cancer than their overweight counterparts. Being in a healthy weight range also lowers your risk for other serious diseases, like diabetes and heart disease. Engaging in regular physical activity is one major step towards monitoring your weight. In order to lose weight, you’ll need to engage in both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training or weight training. Many people skip weight training because they don’t want to gain pounds in the form of muscle, they want to drop weight. However, building muscle can actually help you burn calories more efficiently and help you lose weight in the long run. Replacing fat with muscle isn’t the same thing as gaining weight and many cancer patients actually lose muscle while they’re undergoing treatment. If you’re struggling with cancer or are dealing with treatment for mesothelioma, you’re probably exhausted, both physically and mentally. This disease can be extremely taxing on your body and you may have barely enough energy to go about your daily activities. Even when it feels like you simply can’t exercise, you still should, even if it’s light exercise. In the long run, working out will increase your energy, not zap it.