Weight Loss
Many people are
talking about how they would like to 'lose weight' and with obesity
levels at their highest levels ever worldwide. Is it really enough
though just to want to lose weight, and how much is it healthy to
lose?
Many people have heard
of a scale called Body Mass Index(BMI), one way to assess this is to
divide your weight in kilogrammes(kg) by your height in metres(m)
squared. Out of all the sites on the internet, I prefer the
following
BMI calculator , but you can check Google for any
others you may prefer.
Normally there is a
suggested scale that a result over 25 is overweight, over 30 is obese
and under 18.5 is underweight. This figure that we arrive at is an
indicator to being over or under weight, but does the story end
there?
Someone who shows up
as being a healthy weight, might just give themselves a pat on the
back and carry on living their life in the same way, confident that
The Grim Reaper may have a few less cards to deal. However, the BMI
scale makes no allowances for body fat(BF), in fact, it doesn't let
us know what any of our body is composed of, just what it weighs.
Some people who are
classed as overweight may in fact be healthy (such as Rugby players,
Martial Artists, or Gymnasts) others with a normal body weight may be
quite unhealthy (such as someone who has an inactive job and/or
doesn't do exercise). So the next thing we need to check is roughly
how much fat we are made up of. Just as with the BMI there is a
scale of healthy and unhealthy BF, and this can differ for men and
women. In the next article I hope to explore what is the current
thought on healthy fat percentages for men and women.
Having a healthy body
weight is important, but making sure it is suitable for your
lifestyle is even more important. Elite athletes realise they are
sacrificing their health to attain their goals in their disciplines.
If your goals are for having great health, it is important to know
the risks of over- and under-training and following an extreme eating
plan. Whether this is eating too much to gain muscle size or eating
too little to lose weight it is important to do it as healthily as
possible and normally under the advice of a professional. I hope
that this short series of discussions may help, please feel free to
ask anything either in the comments below or at the email: seb@kaizenfitness.co.uk
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account to sign in to comment as I am trying to prevent spam.
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