What is your healthy weight?
I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years, and when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much stronger earth’s gravitational pull has become since 1990. - Dave Barry
Most people know what they weigh. Some have an idea of what they want to weigh. Few really know what they should weigh.
Your beloved scales tell you very little about your health. Scientists have found that it is not our ‘total weight’, but the amount of fat we have in our bodies which tells us how healthy or unhealthy we are. There are two ways of working out our ‘fatness’ or ‘thinness’ - BMI (Body Mass Index) and Bodyfat %.
Your BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in metres squared. For example, a 9 stone woman who is 5′ 5″ has a BMI of 20.5. On the BMI scale,
- under 18 is underweight
- 18 - 25 is a healthy weight
- 25 - 30 is overweight
- over 30 is obese
- over 40 is morbidly obese
The drawback to BMI is that it is guessing your level of fatness - from your height and your weight - and it can therefore give a misleading result. For example, if you naturally have a large frame or if you have a lot of muscle due to high activity levels, you can come up overweight or obese on the BMI scale, when actually you have a healthy fat weight.
Your Bodyfat % is the percentage of your total weight that is made up of fat. If you are 50% bodyfat then half of your total weight is fat, 33% = a third, 25% = a quarter…
Bodyfat % is a far more accurate measure than BMI, because rather than guessing, it actually tells you how much of your total weight is fat. It also takes into account your age and, most importantly, your sex (as women naturally have more bodyfat than men).
If you are concerned about your weight then the best thing to do is get your Bodyfat % tested. It is far more accurate, and it takes into account differences in fat and muscle weight, rather than just your total weight. Most personal trainers offer bodyfat testing as part of their service, so why not book a session to find out what you should really weigh?
Liam
The Slim Company
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