Your weight

Weight

Good health is about more than just your weight. It depends on many things, including your family’s medical history, your genes, whether you smoke, the type of food you eat and how active you are.

A combination of factors determines our weight, and that’s why it’s difficult to set an exact ideal weight that applies to everyone. It’s important to remember there’s a range of healthy body weights.

Aiming to keep within this means an end to aspiring to one magic weight you think you should be. Many people have a distorted perception of what constitutes a healthy body weight.

We’re surrounded by images of celebrities, many of whom are underweight. Comparing yourself with these images isn’t helpful. But comparing yourself to friends and family isn’t that useful either, because as obesity becomes more common our perception of ‘average’ weight may in fact be too heavy. It’s important to make an objective assessment of your size. Looking at yourself in the mirror isn’t a good way to assess whether you’re a healthy weight.

Waist / Hip Ratio

A simple guide you can do at home is to measure your waist-hip ratio while standing relaxed and naked. Measure your waist at its narrowest point. This is usually around your navel. Next, measure your hips at their widest point. Most often this is around the buttocks.

It’s important not to pull the tape tight when doing either of these measurements – let the tape rest on your skin.

Divide your waist measurement by your hip measurement. The figure you get from this calculation is your waist-hip ratio. For example, if your waist is 85cm (33in) and your hips are 100cm (39in), your waist-hip ratio is 0.85.

If you’re a man and your ratio is more than 1.0,, or a woman and your waist-hip ratio is more than 0.8, it means you’re an apple shape and at greater risk of health problems.

What’s wrong with underweight?

A number of underweight people are fit and well, they simply have a slender constitution. However, for many people being underweight means their bones aren’t as strong as they could be and they have fewer ‘reserves’ if they fall ill.

It can also affect a woman’s fertility.

If you’ve experienced recent and unintentional weight loss and you’re always tired, you should see your doctor in case there’s an underlying health problem.

If you consciously restrict how much you eat, and/or feel anxious about the thought of gaining weight, you may have an eating disorder and you should talk to your doctor.

Not weighing enough can put your health at risk. If you’re underweight because of a restriction of your diet, you’re at risk of a number of nutritional deficiencies. Young women especially are at risk of anaemia (a lack of iron), while insufficient calcium can lead to osteoporosis in later life.

Amenorrhoea (missing menstrual periods) is also common among women who are underweight, and it can lead to infertility.

Many things affect our health, but research has shown that people whose body weight is within a certain range tend to live the longest and enjoy the best health. Those who are underweight are below this range, which means their health could be at risk.