Health & Fitness

So you think you need to lose weight. What now? Part One

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How can you tell if you're at a healthy weight(BMI vs BFP)?


So you think you need to lose weight. What now? Part One



Disclaimer: Any health issues should be consulted with your physician, however Dr. Morris would love to help. I am not a licensed doctor; however, I have received training on dietetics and human development. This take is to help guide people to the right mind set and to ask their doctor questions to get better answers.



A big question on here is "Do I need to lose weight?" Most of the time, the answer is no, you're okay. Since there are so many questions regarding weight, here's an article to tighten things up. I will include sources at the end in case you want to verify or get more information.


The first thing to understand that most information about weight control or measurement is done for people ages 18+. This is because below 18 people are still in development and body fat is necessary for development. If the recommended diet for that specific age group is not followed, it can lead to issues like shorter height or not completely developing in extreme cases.



BMI:


The body mass index or BMI is an incredibly rough gestimate of health and can be incredibly inaccurate. It takes your weight, age, and height to come up with this number. What makes this inaccurate is because not everybody is the same. Some people are, don't laugh, actually big boned. In addition, BMI does not account for muscle. If you weight lift and have developed significant muscle, you could be obese. Long story short it's okay, it's just not accurate.


However, they can be used to figure out the chance of developing diseases like hypertension and diabetes. BFP is a rather new thing in the medical world so there is not as much research with BFP as there is with BMI.



BFP:


Body fat index however can be incredibly accurate. It measures different widths of your body and then uses those measurements to compare it to your weight. The most accurate measuring you can do it to go to someone trained to measure it. You can get this done at a gym. You can also buy machines to do this for you. You can also do it the cheap way. Measure it yourself. You will need a tape measure and an online calculator. The calculator I have linked automatically tells you what range you should be in, but for those of you who have your number:



So you think you need to lose weight. What now? Part One



If you are in the Athlete category, you probably have to go in for physicals every year. As you can see that women need far more fat than men. This is because we need it to balance our hormones.


Again, the best way to tell if you're at a healthy weight is to go talk to your physician. My physician uses the BMI index and so do most doctors. However, most professionals recognize it doesn't give you a complete picture of your health, so it might not hurt to ask about your BFP.


(I couldn't find a picture of happy people with a doctor that I liked to end it so have this Doctor instead):


So you think you need to lose weight. What now? Part One




Sources:
https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/body-fat-measurement
Whitney, Eleanor Noss., and Sharon Rady. Rolfes. Understanding Nutrition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2002. Print.
Santrock, J. W. (2013). Life-Span Development. New York: Mc Graw Hill.



PS: Do you guys want more health articles like this? Would you like it to be a weekly thing or would you prefer for the Cheese to pull out some recipes instead?

So you think you need to lose weight. What now? Part One
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