October 2, 2026
Honestly, if we got a rupee every time someone said this in OPD, we'd have built a new wing by now.
A very typical case goes something like this. A 46-year-old shop owner comes in because his BP was 152/96 on the chemist's machine and his wife made him come. Big man, kind face, belly well over the belt. We bring up weight and he laughs. "I hardly eat anything. Two parathas in the morning, that's it." With white butter, of course. And lassi. And the evening samosa he forgets to mention till his wife reminds him.
We're not making fun of anyone here. Most of us grew up thinking a bit of weight means a man is eating well, the family is doing well. Nobody at a wedding looks at the uncle with the round tummy and thinks "heart patient". But his heart has been keeping count for years, even if nobody else was.
Simple way to think about it. Every extra kilo is living tissue. Needs blood. Needs oxygen. Who supplies it? One pump. Yours.
Carry 15-20 kilos more than your body was made for and the heart is basically doing double shift without a day off. It manages fine for a while, sometimes for 10 or 15 years. Like a scooter that always has three people sitting on it. Runs okay. Till it doesn't.
And weight rarely comes alone. BP climbs. Sugar starts creeping. Cholesterol report comes back with a few numbers in red. The snoring gets worse. Most of the time when we sit and trace back a patient's heart problem, the weight was sitting there right at the start.
The frustrating thing with obesity and heart disease is you feel nothing for years. Nothing. Meanwhile, a few things are slowly going wrong in the background.
You won't see any of this in the mirror. You see it on a BP machine. On an ECG. In a lipid report. Usually the first time someone actually bothers to get tested.
This surprises people. Two men can both weigh 78 kg and one can have much more heart risk than the other. Why? Where the fat is sitting.
Hips and thighs, not such a big deal. Inside the stomach, wrapped around the liver and intestines, that's the dangerous fat. And we Indians are really good at storing fat exactly there. Lots of people look slim in a loose shirt but have a soft tummy with plenty of fat inside. Doctors literally call it the "thin-fat Indian".
It's taken seriously enough that in 2025 experts from AIIMS and other centres changed the obesity definition for Indians. BMI cut-off came down to 23 (Western charts say 30), and belly fat became a big part of the diagnosis.
Punjab doesn't look good here, sadly. In the last National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), roughly 41% of women and 32% of men in the state were overweight or obese. Over 6 in 10 had too much belly fat. Six in ten. Look around at the next family function and do the maths.
Quick test you can do tonight. Measuring tape, bare stomach, at the level of your belly button. Breathe out normally. Don't suck the tummy in (yes, we know). Men, 90 cm or above (about 35.5 inches) is the risk zone. Women, 80 cm (about 31.5 inches). Or the easy rule: waist should be less than half your height.
Over the line? No need to panic. Nothing has to be wrong today. It just means your heart deserves a proper look.
Worried, no. But paying attention, yes. Especially if you see yourself in any of this.
Your waist is over the limit even though the weighing machine says "normal". Your BP, sugar or cholesterol has been "a little high" for two or three years and everyone, including you, has just let it be. You sit most of the day, at a desk, at the shop counter, in the car (here's why that matters: sitting all day and your heart). You're a woman past menopause and the tummy suddenly started growing. Your father or elder brother had a heart problem young.
And then the stuff people blame on "just weight". Breathless on stairs that were easy a couple of years back. A heavy, tight chest when you walk fast, which settles when you stop. Ankles puffy by evening. Snoring so loud the family has complained, and you still wake up tired. Heart sometimes racing or skipping for no reason. Please don't sit on these.
One more thing, and it's important. Chest pain lasting more than a few minutes, going into the left arm, jaw or back, or coming with sweating and breathlessness, is an emergency. Don't wait for it to settle. Don't drive yourself. Call for help and get to a hospital.
Good news now. You don't need to lose 25 kilos to help your heart. Even 5 to 10% of your weight is enough to make a difference. At 80 kg, that's 4 to 8 kg. BP comes down a bit, sugar gets easier, and the heart finally gets some breathing room.
In most Punjabi kitchens the culprits are the same old ones. Curries where the ghee floats on top. Oil poured straight from the bottle (use a spoon for one week, you'll be shocked). Parathas with white butter every single morning. Sweet lassi. Pakoras with evening tea, every evening. Nobody's asking you to give these up for life. Just not daily. Try whole wheat, bajra or jowar instead of refined flour and white rice sometimes. Buttermilk instead of sweet lassi. Half the plate vegetables and salad. And go slow at weddings, we know, we know. We're Punjabi too.
For exercise, start with walking. 30 minutes after dinner, five days a week. It sounds too simple, but it works better than most people expect. Sleep properly too, because a sleepy body is a hungry body, and it holds on to belly fat. If diet and walking aren't moving the numbers, there are medicines and other options today, but start those only with your doctor, after your heart has been checked.
And if you haven't exercised in years, or you already get breathless or chest discomfort, get checked first. Please don't go from zero to running 5 km.
Most people discuss weight with a gym trainer or a dietician, not a cardiologist. But from where we sit, weight is very often the first domino. It falls, and BP, sugar and cholesterol fall in line after it.
So at CareBest Hospital, we check waist size and weight as part of every cardiac check-up, along with BP, sugar, cholesterol and an ECG. It's one of the most common risks we see. And one of the few you can actually turn around, if you start in time.
Weight never feels urgent. So it gets pushed to next month. Then after the wedding season. Then next year. The heart, meanwhile, keeps paying the bill.
If your waist has been quietly growing, or your reports keep saying "slightly high", come and get a proper picture. Much better than guessing.
Book a consultation with our cardiology team at CareBest Hospital, Jalandhar, and find out what your weight is really doing to your heart.
CareBest Hospital, Jalandhar. Because Your Heart Carries Every Extra Kilo Too.