Healthy Weight
The BMI is often used as the criteria to determine if a person is within the healthy weight range.
Your Body Mass Index is the relationship between your weight and height. If your BMI is between 18.5 and 25, you are in the recommended weight for your height. But your health may still be at risk if you are not getting regular physical activity and practicing healthy eating.
People with a healthy weight is associated with living longest, the lowest incidence of serious illness and being perceived as more physically attractive. Having a healthy weight is very important to overall health and can help you prevent and control many diseases.
Mens sana in corpore sano
Healthy mind in a healthy body
The benefits of maintaining a healthy body weight are numerous, not only to the quality of life, but also the quantity of life. Some of these benefits are:
- Decreased cancer risk.
- Improved heart health.
- Increased fertility.
- Better sleep.
- Decreased risk of diabetes.
How to maintain your healthy weight
The amount of energy (calories) you get from food and drinks is balance with the energy your body uses for things like breathing, digesting, and being physically active.
If you want to maintain your healthy weight, your energy in (food and drinks) and energy out (exercise) should be balanced. It’s the balance over time that helps you, so your energy in-and-out don’t have to balance exactly every day.
Follow a healthy diet, be physically active and limit the time you spend being inactive.
Most people with age-related weight gain is due in part to a decrease in calories burned, your metabolic rate decreases with age. Energy expenditure decreases with age (2% per decade). After a person reaches 20 years old, daily energy expenditure decreases about 150 calories per decade. This is probably due to decreased muscle mass and increased fat mas.
The number of calories burned per day decreases with age, so you have two options to maintain your weight at a healthy range: (1) To reduce your calorie intake, or (2) To increase your activity level (exercise).
Healthy weight calculator?
You can calculate here your body mass index to know if you are within the normal weight range.
It may be also a good idea to check your waist circumference and keep it within the recommended limits.