Weight Gain Patterns

When you decide to lower your body weight, you should first consider how you gained weight. There are many paths to becoming overweight. Many people are unaware of how they got to be so large. Knowing more about the way you gained weight will help you understand how you might lose weight. You need to be realistic.

Overweight and obesity result from an energy imbalance over a long period of time caused for each individual due to a combination of several factors like individual behaviors, culture, metabolism, environmental factors, genetics and socioeconomic status. This involves eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.

Aging, which is generally accompanied by a slower metabolism, can cause weight gain unless accompanied by a reduction in food intake or adequate exercise. Weight gain can be a significant symptom of several endocrine diseases such as Cushing's syndrome, polycystic ovary syndrome or hypothyroidism. It may also be caused by heart or lung disorders as well. A progressive weight gain occurs with pregnancy; whereas, a periodic weight gain may occur with menstruation. A rapid weight gain may indicate dangerous fluid retention.

Many people gain weight in spurts, as a consequence of binge-eating or periodic indulgences.

Weight gain may be associated also with hormonal changes, as in pregnancy , or whenever life-style changes, poor eating habits (high-carbohydrate, high-calorie diet), emotional factors such as guilt, depression and anxiety ,smoking cessation ,alcohol consumption, use of drugs such as corticosteroids, cyproheptadine, lithium, tranquilizers, phenothiazines, and tricyclic antidepressants medications that increase fluid retention and cause edema (or the abnormal pooling of fluids in the tissues), injury, or illness reduce physical activity. Without a balanced reduction in food intake or change in food selection, reduced physical activity produces weight gain. Bursts of weight gain represent maladaptive responses to a variety of stressors.

Five basic factors of weight gain:

1. Lifestyle - gradual gain from food in excess with exercise deficit.
2. Metabolic - changes in metabolism, reduced physical activity, increased activity of fat storage mechanisms
3. Aging - slow progressive weight gain into sixth or seventh decade associated with decreased lean-body mass.
4. Food-Addiction Complex - compulsive eating is associated with symptoms and ill-health.
5. Emotional Eating - between lifestyle tendencies and the food-allergy complex lies a twilight zone of excessive emotional eating with important implications

These weight-gain factors are not mutually exclusive and tend to merge together as the years go by. Often a lifestyle pattern of weight gain will be associated with emotional eating, which brings on food allergy-addiction, followed by increasing metabolic disturbances, aggravated by the effects of aging. The mid-thirties to early forties are the pivotal years when adaptation to dysfunctional habits runs out and health problems begin to multiply. If you have not changed your ways by the early fifties, you may be heading for bigger trouble.

Our bodies need calories for daily functions such as breathing, digestion, and daily activities. Weight gain occurs when calories consumed exceed this need. Physical activity plays a key role in energy balance because it uses up calories consumed.

Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in an expenditure of energy with a range of activities such as :

1. Occupational work: carpentry, construction work, waiting tables, farming;
2. Household chores: washing floors or windows, gardening or yard work;
3. Leisure time activities: walking, skating, biking, swimming, dancing, sports or exercise (softball, tennis, football, aerobics).

Regular physical activity is good for overall health. Physical activity decreases the risk for colon cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. It also helps to control weight, contributes to healthy bones, muscles, and joints; reduces falls among the elderly; and helps to relieve the pain of arthritis. Physical activity does not have to be strenuous to be beneficial. Moderate physical activity, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking five or more times a week, also has health benefits.

Despite all the benefits of being physically active, most Americans are sedentary. Technology has created many time and labor saving products. Some examples include cars, elevators, computers, dishwashers, and televisions. Cars are used to run short distance errands instead of people walking or riding a bicycle. As a result, these recent lifestyle changes have reduced the overall amount of energy expended in our daily lives. According to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, in 2000 more than 26% of adults reported no leisure time physical activity.

Genes can directly cause obesity in disorders such as Bardet-Biedl syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome.

Lifestyle Weight Gain:

Obesity is almost fashionable in some European countries and is common enough in the USA to be considered a standard feature of the lifestyle. The tendency in affluent countries is to overeat and drink, accepting both weight problems and disease as a consequence. Affluence, self-indulgence, sedentary occupations, and little physical exercise all combine to produce overweight people with heightened risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Extra food may be ingested slowly and gradually. High-fat and high-sugar meals, alcoholic beverages, desserts, and snacks are often to blame. Weight is gained progressively often with brief interludes of weight loss on weight-reduction diets, followed by a resumption of steady gain.
 

In America, a changing environment has broadened food options and eating habits. Grocery stores stock their shelves with a greater selection of products. Pre-packaged foods, fast food restaurants, and soft drinks are also more accessible. While such foods are fast and convenient they also tend to be high in fat, sugar, and calories. Choosing many foods from these areas may contribute to an excessive calorie intake. Some foods are marketed as healthy, low fat, or fat-free, but may contain more calories than the fat containing food they are designed to replace. It is important to read food labels for nutritional information and to eat in moderation.

Portion size has also increased. People may be eating more during a meal or snack because of larger portion sizes. This results in increased calorie consumption. If the body does not burn off the extra calories consumed from larger portions, fast food, or soft drinks, weight gain can occur.

Some children get fat right away. They may be genetically predisposed, but the main reason for childhood obesity is eating too much food. The overabundance of food and the tendency to eat high sugar-fat foods is a lifestyle problem. The majority of overweight children we see are also symptomatic and compulsive eaters. They manifest food allergy-addiction patterns. An overweight child usually becomes an overweight adult. Others make it through childhood with normal growth patterns, but gain as adolescents or young adults. An overweight patient in their 20's to early 30's will often claim they feel perfectly OK, but eat too much and exercise too little.

The four lifestyle eating patterns are:

1. Traditional
2. New Eclectic
3. Disorganized
4. Dysfunctional

All four lifestyles produce weight problems for different reasons. If you have a traditional eating pattern, food is important and meals are well-organized. You follow traditional cooking patterns, have three-square meals a day, and tend to socialize and reward with drinks, snacks and desserts. Your problem is that there is always too much food and often too little exercise. If you are interested in "gourmet" food preparation you may be paying the price of gustatory pleasure by compromising your health.
 

You are motivated by pleasure, convenience, social expectations, family traditions, and you may have a strong identification with the food you eat. You often talk about food, restaurants, and eating pleasures. You may drink too much. The prospect of diet revision is daunting because of the convenience of and sometimes substantial investment in your food preferences and habits. You may have even more resistance when you realize that we are talking about enduring changes in your eating behavior, not just a short-term weight-loss diet.
 

If you fall into the eclectic eating lifestyle, you tend to overindulge in food outside your own home and tend to eat snack or dessert foods when you are home. You may seldom cook proper meals at home. Instead you bring home prepared foods, or order from fast-food delivery services. Your home is stocked with snack foods. If you are single and working you may not have food preparation skills and dislike cooking at home. Your appetite regulation becomes disorganized. Addictive eating patterns increase. You experience strong cravings for high caloric foods. Excessive weight gain is a common consequence.
 

The weight management tasks for disorganized eaters are obviously different from their better organized neighbors. If you belong to the eclectic eaters group - organized or disorganized, your first task is to begin eating meals at home. You need to follow the medium to slow track of the Alpha Nutrition Program with a good support system. You have a lot to learn, but once you "get it" your life will vastly improve.

Dysfunctional eating patterns, especially compulsive eating, lead to the most serious obesity. The only way out is through an addiction-recovery process. the Alpha Nutrition Program works at the technical, biological level.

You have to slowly re-educate yourself about food selection and eating. Weight loss is definitely secondary to the restoration of your health. In order to maintain control of your eating behaviors you must abstain from eating trigger foods - these usually are made from wheat, milk, sugar, and eggs.

Metabolic

If metabolism slows down and caloric intake stays the same, you gain weight. Many chronic illnesses are associated with reduced appetite, increased metabolism and weight loss. Injuries which require little tissue repair but reduce physical activity for weeks or months will often cause major weight gain. Hormonal effects on metabolism and weight are seen in a variety of normal circumstances such as pregnancy, and several diseases involving hormonal changes. Low thyroid hormone levels are associated with weight gain and most patients who go to their physicians complaining of weight gain and fatigue will have their blood thyroid hormone (thyroxin or T4) level checked. Some physicians have been tempted to treat their patients with thyroid even when the blood results fall into a normal range. Many overweight patients have been "treated" with thyroid extracts with the hope of inducing weight loss. This treatment is disappointing unless enough of the hormone is taken to cause a hyperthyroid state, complete with anxiety, insomnia, fast heart rate, and other undesirable symptoms. This approach, of course, is not desirable.

Researchers have found that middle-aged men with a collection of conditions known as metabolic syndrome have an increased risk for both cardiovascular disease and death.
Findings from the third NHANES Survey (February 2002) estimate that as many as 47 million Americans may exhibit a cluster of medical conditions (a “metabolic syndrome”) characterized by insulin resistance and the presence of obesity marked by a pot belly, abdominal fat, elevated blood sugar and triglycerides levels, abnormal blood lipids, high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure.

According to the study authors, metabolic syndrome is likely caused by some combination of obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, diet and genetic factors.
Certain characteristics of metabolic syndrome, including high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, are known to be risk factors for heart disease.

The most common symptoms associated with weight gain are:

• Fatigue
• Headache
• Generalized aching and stiffness
• Abdominal pain and boating
• Water retention (edema)
• Feel depressed

The term addictive food allergy was suggested to describe the connection between compulsive eating and illness. Among our patients, there is a consensus that eating-control is difficult to achieve, even when wrong food choices involve serious illness. The consensus is also that some foods trigger compulsive eating, uncontrollable by ordinary acts of consciousness.

Appetite Control  

The every-day food choices made by people of all ages influence their health and well being by supplying energy and specific nutrients for the body’s functions. The concept of optimal nutrition is about eating the right amounts of foods and therefore nutrients, for each individual to live their life fully and in good health. Researches are trying to identify these ‘right amounts’ for people in different population groups and to examine the influence of psychological and cognitive factors on food intake and health outcomes.

We all need a specific amount of calories just to lie in bed and breath. This is referred to as the BMR, or Basic Metabolic Rate.

How many calories do you need?

That’s individual, and it is also connected to your state of health.
The number of daily calories needed tends to run high with some diseases.

There are tricks to help you control your appetite.

The Control Concept

Systems in our brain regulate appetite, eating behaviors, and manage body weight.
 

The appetite system is based on programs in the old reptilian brain. This system is designed to establish the most efficient path to reliably available food, then to lock in the behavior and repeat it without further modification. Our appetite system tends to run automatically at this primitive level and defies conscious attempts to alter the program. Any insightful person will be able to track the importance of food searches in their own behavior. If you watch the people around you, you will readily confirm the primacy of feeding behaviors in human social existence.
 

It is possible to construct a rather elaborate model of brain function in terms of the brain's attempt to regulate the molecular flow of food materials. Feeding behaviors are highly automated and seem to be designed around recursive loops.

• Choose sensibly -

  • Choose a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fat
  • Choose and prepare foods with less salt.
  • If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation.
     

• Build a healthy base -

  • Chose a variety of fruits and vegetables daily.
  • Keep food safe to eat.
     

• Aim for fitness -

  • Aim for a healthy weight.

  • Be physically active each day.

Stress and fat

Chronic stress can cause cravings for cookies, candy, chips and other high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods.

Stress is being shown to play a significant role in a wide variety of conditions and disease states. Recent work from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other major research centers has demonstrated that stress is a significant contributor to immune dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, other age-related disorders, and to excess body fat. Over 20% of adults have an obesity-like condition characterized by an excessive amount of abdominal fat. Until now, the only course of action for loosing this fat has been stress reduction with exercise and diet.

Many people have unsuccessfully tackled fitness programs in the past. These unsuccessful attempts can bring on the fear of failure. However, you may begin to realize that your weight problem goes deeper than that. You may feel uneasy, even scared, when picturing yourself "in-shape," energized, and living life to the fullest.

Could it be that many people fear the very goal that they seek?

Along with success comes the possibility that people will view you differently and treat you differently. Some people feel that getting and staying healthy and fit is "just one more commitment" in an already over-committed life. And there is the worry that as your body changes, you change, too. Once you get a grip on your fitness-related fears, you can gradually overcome them.

There are myths and misinformation put thoughts into people's heads that they have to work out like crazy forever. Movie stars train for hours a day to prepare for a role and to keep their bodies in Hollywood-shape, and professional athletes dedicate 50+ hours a week to their sport.

You could think of exercise as a prescription. When you get your medicine, you don't take the whole bottle at once, do you? Of course not. The medicine wouldn't work, and it would be extremely harmful to your body in large quantities.
 

"I don't have time" is a common excuse to avoid exercise

The fear that people will treat you differently is not so easily gotten rid of. Even though the desire to look fantastic and feel strong is at or near the top of want lists, many people worry about the reactions to their improved appearance.
 

Suddenly, you're being flirted with and being showered with compliments. When you're overweight, you have the protection of the extra weight that takes you out of the competition. In other words, excess weight can serve as a barrier of protection against what is desired and, at the same time, feared.

Think positive and your problem is half solved

The power of positive thinking

Positive psychology shifts the focus from what's wrong with us to what's right with us. The latest research in this fledgling field has shown that cultivating emotions such as optimism, joy, contentment, and interest can help prevent and treat problems-such as anxiety, depression, and stress-related health problems-rooted in negative emotions.

1. Positive people are stress resilient.
2. Positive people are better problem solvers.
    
3. Positive people take better care of their health.
4. Positive people are happier

Food Addiction

Food Addiction – A Growing Problem

Here we look at the curious and biologically perverse phenomena, the craving for and the compulsive eating and drinking of foods that cause illness, obesity and obvious suffering. There is confusion about the origin and nature of abnormal eating behaviours. However, most popular psychological ideas are probably wrong since eating is based on old primitive programs in our brain and have little or nothing to do with the modern personality.

If you ask well-motivated people, who would not believe that they had a food addiction problem, to change their diet to regain their health, many will do so and report surprising success. However, a short time after recovery they will report a relapse with loss of control of their food choices and eating behaviour. They will say "I can't believe it - I was doing so well; then I ate some cookies and I couldn't stop - I ate everything in sight and now I am feeling desperately sick!"

If you ask a bulimic that would not consider herself to be ill about health problems, you will often discover that she has had symptoms of food allergy since infancy - colic, eczema, migraines, bloating, diarrhoea and many other symptoms that came and went for many years. She might tell you that she had cows milk allergy as an infant and still avoids drinking milk, but typically she binges on ice cream and cheese.

There exists a distinct similarity of experiences in different groups of people with problems that look, at first glance, to be un-related. What links these diverse groups is difficulty controlling eating and drinking behaviour with adverse health consequences. We see the entire problem of eating disorders and illness disorders as different aspects of prevalent food problems in our society. Your version of the story will depend on which part of the complex you are most concerned about.

Health problems linked to food-addiction are:

• Obesity
• Alcoholism
• Diabetes (NIDDM)
• Bulimia
• Food Allergy (delayed pattern or type3)

The secrets to solving food-addiction are:

• Identify and avoid trigger foods and drinks
• Increase nutrient density with healthy foods and good nutrient supplements
• Exercise and create a healthier lifestyle
• Personal development and increased self confidence

We think of trigger foods as the "bad guys"; these foods and drinks cause symptoms and at the same time trigger cravings and compulsive eating or drinking. The term "addictive food allergy" was suggested to describe the connection between compulsive eating and illness. You have to stop eating these foods to re-gain control and to recover from the illnesses they cause.
 

Obesity

Obesity means that food selection and the amount of food eaten is out of synch with a person’s biological needs. All obesity is mute testimonial to over-eating. Excess fat accumulation is an effect of eating disorders and food energy intake exceeding energy expenditure. Even if compulsive eating stops, fat stubbornly persists; heroic efforts to lose weight by food restriction often fail.

The extra food may be ingested slowly and gradually, although most people gain weight in spurts, as a consequence of binge-eating or periodic indulgences in extra foods, alcoholic beverages, desserts, and snacks. Rapid weight gain may be associated with hormonal changes, as in pregnancy or low thyroid states, or whenever life-style changes, injury, or illness reduce physical activity. Without a balanced reduction in food intake or change in food selection, reduced physical activity produces weight gain.

Obesity may be defined as body weight greater than 20% of an average body weight (determined from statistical tables). The amount of fat stored in us may be compared to our lean body weight, a measure of structural and functional tissues. If the fat proportion exceeds 30% in women and 25% in men, then obesity exists. The body mass index is calculated from the height-weight ratio (weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared). A BMI greater than 30 is considered obesity.

Many women feel too fat if their fat proportion exceeds 20% and would seek dietary and exercise remedies. Lean body mass includes muscle tissue which tends to use up food energy. To give you a reference point, a lean, male, marathon runner or competitive cyclist may have less than 5% body fat. Long-distance athletes are the leanest people in town because sustained exertion causes muscle cells to use fat as the primary fuel. If you train long enough, most of your stored body fat is burned as fuel.

Figures in 2001 show that in the USA there are now 39 million obese people (22.5%). 22% of this population account for a disproportionately high % of all healthcare costs. 15 of the most common, disabling and expensive diseases plague obese people as they age:

Arthritis, breast cancer, heart disease, colorectal cancer, Type II diabetes, endometrial cancer, end-stage renal disease, hypertension, stroke, liver disease, renal cell cancer, low back pain, sleep apnea and incontinence.

Body fat is energy storage which acts like a savings account. Food surplus tends to be saved with interest and stored as fat. People who remain fat have a frugal metabolism and it is difficult to withdraw and spend the savings. One pound of fat is worth at least one day's hard physical labor. Reduced food energy intake tends to induce energy conservation and body weight is maintained until severe food shortage results in weight loss.

Energy conservation in overweight people has a significant behavioural component. As you gain weight you become increasingly efficient by planning physical activity carefully in advance. This is an unconscious adaptation. The whole idea is to conserve energy, so you become increasingly preoccupied with saving steps. Your next trip to the kitchen is well-rehearsed before you leave your chair; not a movement is wasted in collecting the food and returning to the sofa. People who become seriously obese become relatively immobile. Often body shame encourages an indolent, reclusive life-style, with eating as the main recreation, and progressive weight-gain, the inevitable result. Lean people fidget and fuss and burn-off energy rushing around doing things that a more efficient person might avoid.

Many warnings associated with weight gain say, "Watch out if you get too fat, later on, in the distant future, you will have diabetes, coronary artery disease, etc." The truth is, you do not have to wait to feel ill. Within minutes or hours of eating too much of the wrong food, you are already tired, confused and irritable. You may have gastrointestinal symptoms, a headache, a congested nose, a rash and so on. It is not possible to overeat, or even to eat as much as you please without risking prompt discomfort, dysfunction, and disease.

A "less is best" rule suggests:

• More food = Increasing weight, increasing illness

• Less food = Decreasing weight, decreasing illness

Researchers Find Evidence That Weight Change in Humans Affects Metabolism

A team of researchers at The Rockefeller University has shown that the human body maintains a stable weight by increasing the number of calories burned when weight is gained, and slowing the rate when weight is lost.

The researchers studied 41 women and men at the Rockefeller Hospital, a component of the National Institutes of Health's New York Obesity Research Center. The Hospital's unique facilities allowed the investigators to control the volunteers' environment for an extended period of time while they examined how the individuals' biology worked. In the clinical research unit, dieticians prepared a liquid diet that was calibrated to precisely stabilize the volunteers' weight after a gain or loss of at least 10 percent of their total body weight. Food intake and exercise were precisely controlled, and the scientists monitored the change in the rate of metabolism by measuring the total number of calories burned before and after the change in weight. Of the volunteers, 18 were obese and 23 had never been obese.

The researchers found that total energy expenditure, which includes calories burned both at rest and through physical activity, naturally adjusted itself to compensate for weight change. This effect occurred regardless of the volunteer's sex, age, ethnic background or whether or not obesity was present initially. The adjustment in energy expenditure was found even after the new weight had been stable for up to 16 weeks. Most of the change was observed in non-resting energy expenditure - energy spent through physical activity or by skeletal muscle - the only part of metabolism that a person can control directly. The researchers believe that the efficiency of muscle contraction may change as weight varies. These findings may account, in part, for the poor long-term success of treatments for obesity.

Most people gain only 10 or 20 pounds over the 30-year period stretching from their mid-20s to mid-50s. Obesity researchers have long believed that body weight is maintained at a stable level over the course of a lifetime through a "set point," which might provide a fixed reference to which some aspect of body weight or composition, such as body fat, would be compared on an ongoing basis. The feedback mechanism for the effect of fat mass on energy metabolism is unknown, but studies of fat cells over the past 30 years have strongly indicated the role of adipose tissue in set-point control.

Eating Behavior

One of the main problems with proposing diet adjustment as therapy is that our eating behaviors are deeply rooted in a psychosocial matrix, and are not rationally determined. Diet adjustment attempts to introduce rational determination of eating behaviors and food selection. Unfortunately the social basis of eating patterns often conflicts with an individual’s needs, and opposes the attempts made to modify the diet as a means of restoring and maintaining health.

Eating - A Social Activity

Eating is a social activity and most people find it difficult to eat alone. Food selection is a kind of social cement. Social forces including ethnic traditions, religious rules, family traditions, etiquette, and the habits of the local community often determine eating patterns. Eating together with others is a prerequisite of close social grouping. The best way to become a social outcast is to eat differently than the people around you.

The social basis of eating patterns often conflicts with individual needs. The biologic need is to self-regulate - to find an individual, adaptive path. Individual needs may differ from the needs of the group. When a patient is ill and needs to change food choices support tends to be short-lived. Therapists need to work with couples and families to modify one person's diet long-term. Usually there are group benefits. The best way to proceed with diet revision is with the full understanding and support of a social group. When this is not possible, the individual needs extra understanding and motivation to cope with social pressures that resist changes, however beneficial they may be.

A Sensible Weight Loss Program

While important health benefits can be achieved through diet adjustments, there is resistance to lasting changes in food habits. Consider the following:

• Different eating patterns go with different lifestyles
• Eclectic eating patterns
• Disorganized and Dysfunctional eating
• Compulsive eating and food addiction

Food and beverages contain a variety of molecular switches that are usually well-concealed in the course of day-to-day living. In children on controlled diets with parents and teachers monitoring closely, flip-flops are obvious and can often be related to eating or drinking specific foods. To keep matters simple, we refer to a "food reaction" which triggers behaviour change, but we infer that many changes are going on at the same time in the child's brain.

We Are Different

There are important differences between the experiences of different people, and also between men and women. Women may be more likely to eat food when they are short of love and affection, or when they feel depressed. Sometimes food abuse is connected to alcohol and drug abuse in both men and women who have had terrible experiences as children, especially sexual abuse. Depression tends to push women especially into compulsive and disorganized eating. Too many women are trapped at home living an emotionally impoverished and constrained life with few rewards except food. For some women even then food pleasures may feel illicit. Some women attempt to hide their indulgences or go to extreme lengths to conceal evidence of over-eating (especially weight gain) by inducing vomiting, purging, or exercising in a fanatical manner. A host of desires, fears, frustrations, and inhibitions tend to get focused on food and body image. Food can become a comforter and saboteur at the same time.

Men's denial tends to be more complete, and they seldom admit to feeling guilty. Men tend to become angry and withdrawn whenever their eating and drinking habits are challenged. Anger replaces guilt. Men turn their anger into an eating or drinking binge and feel totally justified. They are less motivated by body image, but often want to be associated with an athletic image and identify strongly with sports. Even the most overweight, out-of-shape man can still imagine himself on the football field, calling the plays - with beer in one hand and hot dog in the other, he will protest loudly when the quarterback fumbles the ball. This is an emotional point-of-view that requires no physical fitness.

Overweight Measurements

Being physically and mentally fit is a common goal for everyone. Overweight can lead to high blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol, arthritis, diabetes etc. we should therefore maintain an ideal weight, according to our body structure.
 

Body fat percentage is a description of how much of your overall mass is composed of fat (body fat vs. lean body mass, the latter including blood, fluids, bone, muscle, etc.).

Body Mass Index is an established system to judge people's obesity, a mathematical formula that uses your weight and height information to calculate your body mass. Note that it does not determine your actual body fat percentage, however. Body fat is exceedingly difficult to measure, as the most accurate method involves weighing a person underwater. As a result, BMI is simply the most practical standardized way to evaluate weight.

Your BMI is your body weight in kilograms is divided by the square of your height in meters ([weight in kg] ÷ [height in meters]2). The resulting number generally indicates the extent of one's obesity as well as the degree of risk for weight-related complications.
If you are overweight, eliminating excess body fat will have a dramatic positive impact on your health and energy level.If you carry that weight primarily above the belt, in the stomach and midsection and if you want to maintain your health, it is important that you learn what’s going on in your body and get started on a permanent weight reduction program.

According to the most popular scheme, you are :

    - SLIM if your BMI is below 20.
    - in the ideal weight range if between 20 and 25.
    - slightly overweight between 25 and 30.
    - OVERWEIGHT if over 30.
 

BMI is a good guide for most people to determine health risk. Even a 5% reduction from your current weight is beneficial to your health. If your BMI number is more than 1-2 points above your "ideal" range it's certain you will benefit greatly by losing weight and eliminating excess body fat. For instance, a 5'2" female who weighs 150 pounds (BMI=27), can improve her health by losing as little as seven pounds, reducing her BMI to 26.

Increased body mass index is associated with increased risks of Coronary Heart disease. Compared with lean men, men with BMI of 25-29 have been observed to have a 70% greater risk of CHD whereas men with BMI of 29-33 had almost a 3 fold greater risk of CHD.

Usually when we refer to BMI readings we should not include the following groups:

• Children and teens, because BMI ranges are based on adult heights.

• Competitive athletes and bodybuilders, because heavier muscle weight skews the results and lean body mass is not a health risk.

• Pregnant or nursing women, because they need more fat reserves than usual.

• People over 65, because even BMI values of 29 do not appear to be unhealthy at this       age, and may even be a useful energy reserve in case of illness.