One of the beautiful things about humanity is its diversity. Some are tall, short, thin, thick, and so on. A particular reason each human being is so different from another is because of their internal bone structure.

As we grow from childhood into adulthood our bones framework develops and matures. How much bone mass we have determines why people have such different weights even though they appear to be of the same height and build.

Everyone has heard an obese person explain their excesses with the excuse they have big bones. Even though that explanation does warrant some credibility the chances are that isn't the main cause of the obesity. A detrimental side effect of being overweight is developing serious back pain.

Suffering from back pain is one of the worst ongoing experiences someone can have. Many times a childhood injury is to blame for the onset of back pain which appears later in ones adulthood. Being young and more resilient the damage done to the bone structure isn't realized.

Yet as the skeletal frame grows the damaged bones start to accelerate the flaw resulting in a compounded chain reaction affecting the whole body. It starts with the skeleton bones and progresses to the skeletal muscles. Since the muscular system is maintained by the blood stream it enables a door to the entire body's functions to open.

Eventually the cause of the back pain gradually progresses to the largest component within our body's structure, known as the Central Nervous System. Once this happens serious complications begin to appear. Obesity aggravates back pain by placing extra stress on weight bearing muscles and joints.

Being obese and having back problems can create a catch 22 situation. Muscles need to be exercised. Yet when one is suffering extreme back pain it becomes difficult to get involved with a good exercising regimen. The back pain slows your ability to be active which can easily overlap into ones emotional realm.

Emotional handicaps play a dominant role in the cause of obesity in the first place. And the limitation back pain introduces makes it easy to fall into an emotional state of feeling hopeless. Thus the catch 22 begins.

One starts to think I know I need to lose weight to be happy and to do that I need to exercise more. But I can't really exercise like I should because of my back pain. Therefore what's the point in exercising at all if I can't really do enough for it to help.

Woe is me (self pity takes a foot hold). Depression gets fed. No exercising of the muscles leads to more obesity. More obesity further damages the back. And the solution becomes the problem and the problem becomes dissolution.

The secret to beating the back pain/obesity cycle is to realize that any exercise is helpful. So what you can't walk a mile a day or can barely make it to the mail box. You can walk to the mail box. Start out with a slow and simple pace. Walk to the mail box twice a day instead of once.

By doing this it will help you to lose more psychological baggage than would be imagined. Work on your diet and make some small beneficial changes. Be proud of yourself when you do these things.

Set some realistic goals. Try to loose only five pounds a month. If you simply did that you could be sixty pounds lighter at the end of a year. Losing those sixty pounds is going to reduce your back pain too. The less weight your spine has to compensate for the easier it is for it to get stronger and healthier.

Unless the doctor gave you only six months to live there's no good reason not to take small steps forward to improve your state of affairs. There's no guarantee that the back pain will go away but it is a certainty that losing weight will steal a lot of its sting.