I recently did some research for an article that was requested by several readers to my website. The question was, Am I Overweight? This got me thinking about how we determine healthy weight and the tools we use such as the healthy weight chart.
When using the healthy weight chart as a means to determine if we are overweight we need to remember that this is a very broad and simplistic method.
The healthy weight chart sometimes referred to as the height weight chart can be very confusing to some people.
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.
The healthy weight range system is a collection of data from many thousands of people worldwide and is designed using an average of many different people's data.
For most people the height weight chart gives quite an accurate indication of where you are within the band of the healthy weight range.
Because of the generalised nature of these tools you should always look at other factors besides the height weight chart to be confident in the accuracy of your result.
Caution, there are cases where the results have been incorrect for example:
We found that a taller than average man who was considered to be in the healthy weight range had developed some liver function problems.
Fatty liver disease is thought to be related to the amount of fat that is carried around the abdomen.
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.
When using the healthy weight chart as a means to determine if we are overweight we need to remember that this is a very broad and simplistic method.
The healthy weight chart sometimes referred to as the height weight chart can be very confusing to some people.
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.
The healthy weight range system is a collection of data from many thousands of people worldwide and is designed using an average of many different people's data.
For most people the height weight chart gives quite an accurate indication of where you are within the band of the healthy weight range.
Because of the generalised nature of these tools you should always look at other factors besides the height weight chart to be confident in the accuracy of your result.
Caution, there are cases where the results have been incorrect for example:
We found that a taller than average man who was considered to be in the healthy weight range had developed some liver function problems.
Fatty liver disease is thought to be related to the amount of fat that is carried around the abdomen.
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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This article will help you find out if you are within a healthy weight range Click here for the healthy weight chart
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