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It seems like everyone wants to lose weight these days. Whether they can’t fit into their favorite outfit, feel heavy and unfit, or just want to improve their health, losing weight is a big part of modern life. That’s why the diet industry is so big, and it’s why ads for health foods run alongside fast food advertisements. But despite all this, there’s still a lot of controversy about what constitutes a healthy weight and the implications of being outside of this range. This is even more important with the recent release of studies that suggest that even a little excess weight might be dangerous. To help you understand these studies, and to find a healthy weight that’s right for you, here’s the latest news on weight and your personal health.

 

What’s a Healthy Weight?

This is a much debated topic, and a fairly arbitrary one as well. Some sources use Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement where you divide your weight by your squared height (BMI =kg/m squared).  If the result is more than 25 you’re considered overweight, and between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal. However, this result doesn’t take into consideration things like muscle mass. For instance, a body builder would probably be considered overweight by this measure because muscle weights much more than fat. This simple example shows one of the problems of this measurement tool. There are other ways to better evaluate health and your risk of disease such as health tools that measure body fat percentage. Understanding your body composition through these tools may be a much more accurate measure of your health than simply how much you weight.

 

The Link Between BMI and Personal Health

The link between BMI and personal health is extremely unclear. Although it’s generally used to evaluate health, opinions are divided about whether this is a useful tool.  For instance, some older studies suggest that maintaining a weight slightly out of this normal range is actually associated with a lower risk of premature death, though many scientists dispute these findings today. There is also the risk of confounding factors.

 

There are a number of factors which can lower BMI, but also cause serious issues for your health and even your life. For example, smokers tend to have a lower BMI, but definitely aren’t at a lower risk of early death. This example shows yet another of the problems with using BMI as a health monitoring tool, there are just too many other factors that influence health and wellness.

 

New Study on Excess Weight

A recent study tried to eliminate these confounding factors and really determine the risk of a small amount of excess weight. The study examined the health records of parents and children. The idea was that by including parents and children in the study the researchers could correct for many of the confounding factors such as undiagnosed illnesses which could cause low BMIs. Because the BMI of parents and their children are genetically linked, the study could better evaluate the connection between early death and BMI without these confounding factors being an issue. The results were troubling. They showed that the harmful effects of having a high BMI were greater than any other study had shown up until that point. And a similar Norwegian study found the same type of results, and came to a similar conclusion about the dangers of having a high BMI, relating it strongly to an increased risk of death.

 

What this Means for you

These studies show that it may be even more important for you to maintain a healthy weight range than previously thought. This is particularly important because of the rising obesity rates in the western world. Between 1975 and 2014 the obesity rates rose from 105 million to 641 million, a staggering increase that holds dire implications for personal health and wellbeing.

 

On a more personal level, excess weight is strongly linked to a number of diseases and illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and coronary artery disease. Even more importantly, studies have shown that it’s not possible to be overweight and metabolically healthy at the same time. And people who are metabolically unhealthy often have metabolic conditions such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels or high cholesterol levels. These conditions are strongly tied to more serious diseases as well as an increased risk of early death. Losing weight, and maintaining a healthy weight range, can eliminate these metabolic conditions and lower your risk of developing more serious problems later.

 

 

If you’re carrying a little extra weight, you might consider using tools such as HomeLab to keep track of your BMI and other health markers. Early intervention is key to many health problems, and this health tracking app will inform you about any early warning signs of trouble.

 

 

 

Tags: Health risk, personal health, health tracking, health monitoring