04 Aug 2011
By: Joan Chew
Over 16 years, building services manager Tan Swee Huat’s waistline crept from 30 inches to 46 inches in 2009, when his 1.75m frame supported 118kg of weight.
All that changed when a failing heart brought him close to death.
Mr Tan, now 48 and weighing 101kg, is working hard to cut the flab with regular exercise and healthy food choices.
The father of two children, aged 11 and 18, is thankful for the chance to turn his life around.
In the past, he said, he would wolf down two servings of steak, on top of sharing dishes like char kway teow with his boss at lunch.
His wife would nag him about his burgeoning weight, but he felt no need to do anything.
After all, he was prepared to live with the inconvenience of having to shop for new pants each time he put on more weight.
But there were signs that his body was straining. He felt breathless each time he walked the 10m from his desk to the washroom.
Even in air-conditioned food courts, he would sweat until half his shirt was drenched.
He recalled: “I was embarrassed when the stallholders asked if the air-conditioner was not working properly.”
Then in September 2009, Mr Tan had a cough that lasted three months.
His wife was worried when she saw how he would turn pale and pant after climbing stairs.
At her urging, he visited a general practitioner (GP), who caught warning signs including his face turning blue from doing simple movements such as sitting up after lying down.
Mr Tan was suffering from heart failure – his ticker was having difficulty supplying sufficient blood flow to meet the needs of his body.
The GP issued him an ultimatum: Check into a hospital immediately or die any time.
Mr Tan thought the GP was exaggerating, but decided to do as he was told.
He was thankful that he did. At the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), he was admitted for decompensated heart failure, a life-threatening condition characterised by an increase in symptoms such as breathlessness, fatigue and fluid retention in the lungs and legs.
Dr Tham Kwang Wei, a consultant at SGH’s Department of Endocrinology, said an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound scan) showed that Mr Tan’s heart function was sub-optimal. Only 35 per cent of his blood was leaving his heart each time it contracted, when a normal person would have 50 to 55 per cent, she said.
This means that his heart was under strain to pump more frequently to sustain blood flow to the other organs. This explained why he tired easily from physical exertions.
Dr David Sim, a consultant with the department of cardiology at the National Heart Centre Singapore, said obese patients like MrTan are more likely to develop heart failure than non-obese individuals.
This is probably because they are more likely to have coronary artery disease, which reduces blood supply to the heart.
Dr Tham said for every one unit increase in body mass index (BMI) – a measure of the amount of fat based on weight and height – the risk of heart failure increases by 5 per cent for men and 7 per cent for women.
During his six days in hospital, Mr Tan was put through a battery of tests and given medication to relieve his symptoms of heart failure.
He was given diuretics, which increased his urine output and removed excess fluid in his body. This reduced the swelling in his legs and brought his weight down to 113kg.
Three months later, he went back to SGH to learn how to lose weight safely.
Dr Tham set him a weight loss target of 10 per cent of his weight, or 11kg, in six months. Mr Tan managed it through exercise and diet.
He now brisk walks up to five times a week, spending 45 minutes to an hour in the park near his house. He also swims weekly, completing 50 to 60 laps in under two hours each time.
He also no longer “eats uncontrollably”, in his words. He chooses healthier hawker dishes and has simple fare like porridge, steamed fish and vegetables for lunch.
His efforts have paid off: His BMI has dropped from 38.5 to 33 now. But he still has to lose another 17kg to bring his BMI to below 27.5, the mark of obesity for an Asian adult.
He said: “Now that exercising has become a habit, I feel uneasy not doing it.”
Click here for JPEG format
« Back to previous
page
back to top