Being overweight harms more than your appearance. It dramatically increases your chances of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other health problems. Overweight people are at least twice as likely to have high blood pressure, and three times as likely to develop diabetes. A middle-aged man who's 20 percent heavier than his ideal weight is two-and-a-half times more likely to die from heart disease than a man with his weight under control.

The cause of overweight is simple: If you take in more calories than you burn up through exercise, the excess gets stored as fat. The solution is equally plain: If you eat less and exercise more, your weight will decrease.