Cancer Society and Weight Watchers Team Up for Health

Tobacco isn’t the only villain in the American Cancer Society’s crusade against cancer. There’s also flab.

The American Cancer Society is teaming up with Weight Watchers for the third annual Great American Weigh In on Wednesday.

"We’re trying to get people to realize that an unhealthy body weight makes you susceptible to not only heart disease and diabetes, but also cancer," says Linda Baumgartner, a local Weight Watchers spokeswoman. A study published in 2003 in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that 90,000 cancer deaths could be prevented each year in the United States if Americans maintained a healthy weight. The study substantiated previous research that linked obesity to a greater risk of uterus, kidney, esophagus, gallbladder, colon and breast cancer.

The Great American Weigh In invites people to visit participating Weight Watchers locations to learn their Body Mass Index, or BMI. BMI is a calculation that uses height and weight to determine if you’re at a healthy weight.

A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and a BMI of 30 or more is regarded as obese. Although it is a more accurate measure of obesity than weight alone, BMI is just one indicator of health risk. It’s not a measurement of body fat versus muscle, for example.

There’s no cost for the weigh-in. Participants also can attend a Weight Watchers meeting.

DETAILS

The Great American Weigh In is 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday. Participating Weight Watchers locations include Austin Bluffs Shopping Center, 3609 Austin Bluffs Parkway, and Colorado Place Shopping Center, 308 S. 8th St.

Weight Watchers: www.weightwatchers.com

American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org