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Article Series: Weight Loss & Dieting
How Do I Really Lose Weight?
What
Is My Healthy Weight?
Every
person alive has a “healthy weight” – the weight that each
individual body, in a state of perfect
health, maintains. According to the US FDA “healthy weight
is a body weight that is appropriate for your height and benefits
your health.” The healthy weight theory is also commonly known
as the “Set-Point Theory.”
Living
in a body considerably heavier than its healthy weight promotes increased risk of asthma, heart disease, high blood
pressure/hypertension, osteoporosis and arthritis, Type 2 diabetes,
gallstones, stroke, and certain types of cancer (esp. colon,
breast, and female reproductive system). Obesity has also been
associated with increased risk of problems with anxiety and
depression.
As much as we may desire to be more slender than our healthy
weight, it is not in alignment with our ideal health and overall
wellness. The foundation of a successful weight loss program
is a shift in consciousness towards a proper weight management
program geared, one focused on reaching and sustaining an individual
body’s healthy weight.
BMI
- The FDA recommends a measuring tool called the BMI or
Body Mass Index for helping determine whether you are at a
healthy weight for you or if are underweight or overweight.
The BMI is based on a person’s height and weight. A BMI of
19-24 is considered a healthy weight, under 19 is considered
underweight, 24-29 is considered overweight, and 30+ is considered
obese. The US Dietary Guidelines for Americans references a
BMI chart for adults over the age of 20 to use in identifying
where they fall in this spectrum.
One important component of a healthy weight that the Body
Mass Index doesn’t account for, however, is the body’s percentage
of body fat to muscle mass. An easy way to estimate
your body fat percentage is to measure your waist with a tape
measure. This measurement approximates your body’s amount of visceral
fat. Generally speaking, and according to the National Heart
Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health,
a male with a waist circumference more than 40 in. (101.6 cm)
and a female with a waist circumference more than 35 in. (88.9
cm) is at greater risk of disease than those with waist circumferences
less than that.
Design
your weight objectives, then, not around those pants you
want to fit into, but around your ideal BMI-range and body
fat percentage. The formula from there is simple:
- Consume
more energy (calories in food) than you burn (through
activity and exercise) to gain weight;
- Burn
more energy than you consume to lose weight;
- Strike
a balance between how much energy you consume and how much
you burn
to maintain your existing weight.
Many factors influence your healthy weight – age, genetics,
metabolism, diet, and lifestyle (that’s your habits and behaviors)
– but only certain of those factors can you do anything about.
There’s no sense bemoaning age or genetic history, but you
can effect enormous changes in your metabolism (and thus your
weight) by making changes in your diet and lifestyle.
When you’re at your healthy weight, you feel good and have
all the energy you need (and more) for your work and leisure
activities. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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