I am posting this article in response to a FAQ from my website. Many people are asking how they know if by being overweight they are putting their health at risk and what is being overweight? This got me looking into BMI, body Mass Index and the healthy weight chart.
The healthy weight chart is a fairly crude formula that takes into account many general factors relating to the overall body shape of a person.
There are several names for the healthy weight chart, some refer to it as the height weight chart but is essentially the same thing.
These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.
If you are not familiar with these charts you may well have seen one pinned to your doctor's wall in his surgery, but this method of calculating healthy body mass is not without its critics.
The problem is that some people especially those who are taller than the average person, can be given a false sense of security when using the height weight chart as a measure of healthy weight.
The healthy weight of an individual can vary and the height weight chart is intended to be used as a guideline to determine if a man or woman is in the healthy weight range.
Healthy weight range like many other similar systems is designed by taking in information from many sources of population data and averaging it out to produce the system.
Because the height weight chart is predicated on data from so many people it is usually fairly accurate and gives you an idea of where you fit in a wide band range of healthy weight.
So is the height weight chart a reliable indicator of healthy weight?
Be aware that these simple tools can produce some misleading results for some people:
Our subject who was over 6 feet in height was given a false assessment when using the methods discussed above. His physician has said he is at risk of fatty liver disease because of his accumulation of abdominal fat.
When fat is accumulated in the middle abdominal area it can increase the probability of fatty liver disease.
If you are quite a tall person and you have a large tummy, it is advisable you choose a healthy lifestyle in terms of dietary intake and exercise in order to significantly reduce abdominal fat.
Conclusion: Many practitioners are now moving towards the use of body fat percentage as a safer and more reliable method of calculating health risks relating to being overweight.
The healthy weight chart is a fairly crude formula that takes into account many general factors relating to the overall body shape of a person.
There are several names for the healthy weight chart, some refer to it as the height weight chart but is essentially the same thing.
These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.
If you are not familiar with these charts you may well have seen one pinned to your doctor's wall in his surgery, but this method of calculating healthy body mass is not without its critics.
The problem is that some people especially those who are taller than the average person, can be given a false sense of security when using the height weight chart as a measure of healthy weight.
The healthy weight of an individual can vary and the height weight chart is intended to be used as a guideline to determine if a man or woman is in the healthy weight range.
Healthy weight range like many other similar systems is designed by taking in information from many sources of population data and averaging it out to produce the system.
Because the height weight chart is predicated on data from so many people it is usually fairly accurate and gives you an idea of where you fit in a wide band range of healthy weight.
So is the height weight chart a reliable indicator of healthy weight?
Be aware that these simple tools can produce some misleading results for some people:
Our subject who was over 6 feet in height was given a false assessment when using the methods discussed above. His physician has said he is at risk of fatty liver disease because of his accumulation of abdominal fat.
When fat is accumulated in the middle abdominal area it can increase the probability of fatty liver disease.
If you are quite a tall person and you have a large tummy, it is advisable you choose a healthy lifestyle in terms of dietary intake and exercise in order to significantly reduce abdominal fat.
Conclusion: Many practitioners are now moving towards the use of body fat percentage as a safer and more reliable method of calculating health risks relating to being overweight.
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