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.
There are some questions about the accuracy of this system. The height weight chart has been around for several decades and many of us have seen it pinned up on the medical practitioner's wall when we have visited the surgery.
There is a particular problem with the modern diet that means that many of us now carry excessive and disproportionate amounts of fat around our waistline.
All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a 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.
For the vast majority of the population the height weight chart gives a realistic picture of where you are within the range of healthy weight.
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 identified a subject (over 6 foot in height) who has now been assessed as being at risk of fatty liver disease, even though his healthy weight range score indicated otherwise. This is an example of the problems with this simple system.
If you are tall but carry excessive weight around your abdominal region you should seek medical advice as you may be at increased risk of 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.
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.
There are some questions about the accuracy of this system. The height weight chart has been around for several decades and many of us have seen it pinned up on the medical practitioner's wall when we have visited the surgery.
There is a particular problem with the modern diet that means that many of us now carry excessive and disproportionate amounts of fat around our waistline.
All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a 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.
For the vast majority of the population the height weight chart gives a realistic picture of where you are within the range of healthy weight.
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 identified a subject (over 6 foot in height) who has now been assessed as being at risk of fatty liver disease, even though his healthy weight range score indicated otherwise. This is an example of the problems with this simple system.
If you are tall but carry excessive weight around your abdominal region you should seek medical advice as you may be at increased risk of 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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If you would like to learn more about healthy weight see this article Healthy Weight Chart
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