"21 Days to My Healthy Body" – Calculating Your Health Status

March 9, 2010 | by LaMonica Toussaint | health

How would you judge someone’s health? Society has led us to believe that being healthy is determined by how we look on the outside. Weight and clothe size has been what many women use as a guide when they feel they need to lose weight. As women we often look at other women and say “I want her body”. My question to you is why? Why do you want to look like someone else? You are an original design, unique and divinely created. That’s one of the reason I decided that the vision for the 21 Day Challenge was to assist women in developing the I Love MY Body attitude.

Weight and size are NOT the determining factors for health and fitness. For years we have followed the “normal” or “ideal body weight” standards. Ideal body weight doesn’t work for everyone. Just because the chart says a 5’3 woman should weight 115 doesn’t mean you have to almost kill yourself to be 115 pounds. There are 2 main things that the IBW doesn’t take into account; muscle mass and body type. Muscle weights more than fat, so if you’re like me you have more muscle mass than fat you will not fall within the “ideal body weight”. No matter how hard you try, and neither will I. Body type is another reason. If you have an athletic build like Serena Williams it’s unlikely that you will fall within the IBW category.

The Mayo Clinic has come up with a new term, normal weight obesity. When I first saw this I was kind of confused. How can a person be of normal weight but yet obese at the same time? The research stated that more than 30 million people are of normal weight but have a body fat an obese person. High body fat puts you at high risk of developing high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Instead of using the weight alone to determine health status, they suggested to use the body mass index (BMI). BMI is NOT the only indicator to use if trying to see if you’re overweight or underweight for your height. Percent body fat is also helpful. Here’s the equation to find your BMI:

BMI=(Weight in pounds / height in inches X height in inches) X 703.

•BMI of less than 18 under weight.

• BMI of less than 18.5 thin for height.

• BMI between 18.6 and 24.9 healthy weight.

• BMI between 25 and 29.9 overweight for height.

• BMI of 30 or greater obese

If you’re like me and not a fan of math I found a BMI calculator that does all the work for you www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/. There are always pro and cons to things like this. The only thing about the BMI that I don’t like is it doesn’t distinguish male and female. A man with a BMI of 25 may be considered healthy for his height and weight but the women with the same height and weight she is considered obese.

The BMI is a tool that you can use to get you started at healthy life style without being so dependent on weight. Speaking of weight, I advise the ladies on the 21 Day Challenge if you feel you have to weight your self do it 1) in the morning 2) after you use the bathroom 3) totally naked 4) only once a week on the same day and around the same time.

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