Reason 1: Your cancer risk may drop

Overweight women have four times the endometrial cancer risk, probably for the same reason they’re at increased risk for breast cancer: Body fat produces estrogen, a hormone linked to both diseases, says a recent study at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Likewise, University of Minnesota researchers found that leptin, a hormone associated with weight gain, enhanced the proliferation of both normal and cancerous breast cells.

Make one change: Talk with your doctor about birth-control pills. Women who take a pill containing both estrogen and progestin have a 50 percent lower risk of developing endometrial cancer.