As a therapist you hear a lot of people talk about their pain. In a way, emotional pain is sometimes worse than physical pain. (Did someone say shame or guilt?) Emotions like this are associated with a number of issues. One issue is weight control or carrying too much weight.
I’ve never been overweight myself. Perhaps I’m genetically fortunate or the healthy living I try to live by pays off in many areas. Maybe it’s both. But how can anybody ignore the pain of a person who cannot even walk down the aisle in Safeway any more without blocking everyone else’s way?
Rather than focusing on the health problems associated with being overweight or obese, I would like to review a popular way to help determine healthy weight.
The method is calculating the BMI or (body mass index.) While this method does not calculate the amount of fat in the body, it does help provide a tool to determine if possible weight problems exist. (Note: weight problems include both being underweight and overweight.)
This method was developed in the 1800’s but gained in popularity in the 1950’s or so and is still widely used today. A person’s height is the basis for the calculation.
I will attempt to simplify this potentially complex calculation. Please remember that applying this method to children is a little different, so I encourage communication with your pediatrician when addressing a child’s weight.
The first calculation is based on pounds and inches. We’ll then review the metric calculation. Start with your weight in pounds and multiply that number by 703. Then, divide that number by your height in inches squared (multiply height in inches by the same height in inches.)
Here is an example: A person who is 5’8” and weighs 170 pounds would multiply 170 by 703 to get to 119,510. Then divide that number by 4624 (68 inches X 68 inches.) The result is: 25.85.
For metric units, take your weight in kgs and divide that by height in meters squared (multiply height in meters by the same height in meters.)
In very general terms, a BMI of 18.5 or less indicates a possible case of someone being underweight and possibly severely underweight. A range of 18.5 to 25 may indicate an optimal weight. A BMI of 25 or more may indicate overweight with anything above 40 indicating obesity. A BMI of 40 or above may actually indicate morbid obesity.
Now, I say general terms as the intention of the BMI was not intended to diagnose medical conditions but to be utilized as a simple way of classifying physically inactive individuals with an average body composition.
To avoid having to compute this information yourself, you can also invest in one of more sophisticated bathroom scales that will do this for you.
The BMI offers advantages in that it can be calculated quickly and does not require special equipment. Disadvantages that need to be considered though are that it does not consider a person’s frame and muscularity mass. Other factors that are not taken into account would be various amounts of bone, fat, water weight and so forth.
Therefore, I simply offer this rather simplistic approach to determining healthy weight as a guideline, but by no means a definitive answer if you are potentially facing serious health concerns as result of weight.
Many of my programs were created because I heard people talk about their pain and then we sat down and talked about what we could do about this pain. Then I researched and tested and tried things because I felt their pain and wanted to help.
My Weight Loss Breeze Program resulted to offer that help. It is all natural and requires no special dietary restrictions or work out.
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