Evaluate Your Body Weight
Various methods are available to help you determine whether or not you are currently maintaining a healthful body weight. Let’s review a few of these methods.
Determine Your Body Mass Index (BMI)
Body mass index (BMI or Quetelet’s index) is a commonly used index representing the ratio
of a person’s body weight to the square of his or her height .It is a way of seeing if your weight is appropriate for your height. A person’s BMI can be calculated using the following equation:
BMI (kg/m2) = weight (kg)/height (m) 2 (Thompson et al, 2011)
BMI can also be calculated on the Internet using the BMI calculator found at www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi.
The actual calculation is your weight (in kilograms) divided by your height (in meters) squared but it's also easy to read on the chart
WHY IS BMI IMPORTANT?
BMI provides an important clue to a person’s overall health. Research studies show that a person’s risk for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and other diseases largely increases when BMI is above a value of 30. On the other hand, having a very low BMI, defined as a value below 18.5, is also associated with increased risk of health problems and death. . BMI can be divided into several categories and generally the higher your BMI, the greater your risk of a large range of medical problems.
| BMI CATEGORIZATION | |
| < 18.5 | Underweight |
| 18.5 to 24.9 | Healthy |
| 25 to 29.9 | overweight * |
| 30 to 34.9 | grade 1 obesity |
| 35 to 39.9 | grade 2 obesity |
| >40 | grade 3 (morbid obesity) |
Separate charts are available for children’s weight and heights.
LIMITATIONS OF BMI
Calculating BMI can be very helpful in estimating our health risk, yet this method has a number of limitations that should be taken into consideration. BMI cannot tell us how much of a person’s body mass is composed of fat, nor can it give us an indication of where on the body excess fat is stored. A person’s age affects his or her BMI; BMI does not give a fair indication of overweight or obesity in people over the age of 65 years, as the BMI standards are based on data from younger people, and BMI does not accurately reflect the differential rates of bone and muscle loss in older people. BMI also cannot reflect differences in bone and muscle growth in children. Recent research indicates that BMI is more strongly associated with height in young people; thus, taller children are more likely to be identified as overweight or obese, even though they may not have higher levels of body fat. Inaccuracies can also occur if you're an athlete or very muscular as this can give you a higher BMI even though you have a healthy level of body fat and this BMI chart is not appropriate for women who are pregnant or breast feeding or people who are very frail.
As BMI is based on weight and height, by losing weight you will reduce your BMI and put yourself into a lower risk group. A healthy diet, including a balance of food groups, vitamins and minerals, is essential for a long and active life. Keeping it simple, body weight and shape are a balance of energy intake (dietary calorific content) against output (calorific burn from activity & exercise) (www.bbc.co,uk/health/treatments/healthy_living).
Many studies have shown that, to slowly and steadily lose weight, any diet which includes a healthy balance will work if you're motivated. Ideally a low fat, high fibre diet is best but low calorie diets, low-carb diets, meal replacement diets or simply reducing portion size will work as long as, at the end of the day, you're not taking in too much energy for your body’s particular needs. Generally, to lose 1lb /week you need to take in 500 calories less every day.
BY: NANA OFFEI BEKOE
