Am I overweight?A question many people wonder is "am I overweight?" Countless people dread looking at the scales for fear of what they might reveal. On their own, the scales aren’t very useful for estimating if a person is overweight or not. They don’t tell us boy fat levels, fluid levels, muscle mass etc. They just reveal a number.
Do I need to lose weight? The best person to assess whether you need to lose weight is your GP, nurse, dietitian or other relevant health professional. Ask them 'am I overweight?', and if they say yes, ask how much you might need to consider losing. Everyone is of a different shape and size...as the old cliché goes, so the amount of weight a person might need to lose will be different from the next person. People who are overweight or obese (i.e. BMI over 25 and over 30 respectively) might also consider whether their waist circumference is within recommended limits. For a person with a BMI in the overweight category, but waist circumference within normal limits, weight loss may not necessarily be the priority. Rather, that person might aim to keep weight stable. For a person in the overweight BMI category and with a waist circumference above recommended levels, weight loss is likely to be beneficial for lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, risk of heart disease and other health conditions. General benefits of weight loss for those who are overweight
Weight loss and cholesterol After asking 'am I overweight?' people with high cholesterol sometimes wonder whether being overweight or obese is detrimental to cholesterol levels. Being obese is considered to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases i.e. regardless of any other factors, if you are obese, then you have a greater chance of developing heart disease. Why? Too much body fat unfavourably impacts on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease – it is associated with increased LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglyceride levels, glucose levels and blood pressure, and lower HDL (good) cholesterol. Is it any wonder that obesity is linked with cardiovascular disease? Research suggests that a 10lb (4.5kg) weight reduction can reduce LDL cholesterol by 5-10%. Weight loss can also reduce total cholesterol and triglycerides, and depending upon the way that you lose weight, it can raise HDL cholesterol. Click here to leave the 'am I overweight?' page and learn other diet and lifestyle tips to help lower cholesterol. Why are so many people overweight?  Am I overweight? If so, why? Look at our changing world – our environment has been the major reason so many people are becoming overweight or obese. Unfortunately, our environment is changing far too fast for our genetics to adapt! If a person is wondering 'am I overweight?' they often also wonder how they became overweight, when they might have been a healthy weight throughout childhood. Think about it: Gadgets do the work for us We have buttons to push that change the tv channel, that turn on our lights, that open the garage door…robbing us of incidental activity. We have escalators and lifts instead of stairs. We even have automatic doors so we don’t have to manually open them ourselves! We eat high calorie, low fibre foods  Our food is laden with calories and stripped of fibre, which packs our tummies with energy whilst providing little satiety (think about this – 2 sweet biscuits is just about equivalent (in calories) to eating 1 rockmelon/cantaloupe. How easy is it to eat 6 sweet biscuits, yet how hard is it to fit in 3 entire rockmelons??)Click here to leave the 'am I overweight?' page to see examples of foods which are useful for lowering cholesterol and losing weight. Our portions are supersized  Compared to 20 years ago, our portions have taken a massive up-size. Chips, cola, burgers, muffins, cookies, the lot. When I check out the counter to a truck stop, I often see super-sized cookies, king sized chocolate bars, large packets of potato crisps...many of these foods containing more calories than should be consumed in an entire meal! The calories are hidden Did you know that 600ml of cola contains around 10-13 teaspoons of sugar? Would you add that many sugars to your cup of coffee? Of course not. But because you can’t physically see the sugar added to the soft drink (unless you work in a soft drink factory) then you’re unlikely to know that much is there. Have you ever seen a soft drink company advertise how much sugar their drinks contain? They would be crazy to do that.  Unhealthy food is cheap It is sometimes cheaper to buy 1L of soft drink than 1L of water in the supermarket. We are not active Our working environment causes many of us to be sedentary (i.e. inactive) for 8 hours of the day. The working world has been taken over by computers. The most exercise we get from using them is typing (or throwing them out the window if we get too frustrated!). Even as a  nutritionist (who is meant to be leading a healthy lifestyle!), I sit down for most of the day whilst seeing clients.For those people who first asked "am I overweight?" a very common question is: How can I lose weight? The billion dollar question. I like to turn to the research for this one. Studies show over and over again that diets don’t work in the long run. It has been suggested that 95% of people who have been on a weight loss diet will have regained all the weight back (some even more) within 5 years. Not good statistics. The best way to lose weight is losing it for good, not just for the short term. Most people do actually know how to lose weight. They know what to do, but find it hard to stick to the rules. Simply – to lose weight, a person needs to be in negative energy balance i.e. they need to eat less calories than they burn. Logically, 2 things can happen in order to make this occur – consume fewer calories or increase energy expenditure (i.e. exercise and activity). Click here to leave the 'am I overweight?' page and learn about the DASH diet, which helps with weight loss and is nutritionally sound. Click here to leave the 'am I overweight' page and learn about the TLC diet, another example of an eating plan that can help lower cholesterol and assist with weight management. Reducing energy intake Am I overweight? If so, which diet should I go on? Calorie restriction is what most diets are focused upon. When people are on the grapefruit diet, they tire quickly of grapefruits. But they are not allowed to eat many other foods, so they end up consuming a small amount of calories overall. How maintainable is this in the long term? Could you live on the grapefruit diet forever?? Well, certainly not, if you take certain medications!! Many medications advise that people restrain from eating grapefruit. This is just one example. Most diets are structured around providing very low amounts of calories or carbohydrates in order to cause weight loss.  Unfortunately, a sudden drop in calorie intake can cause one's metabolism to slow down. And if weight loss is very sudden, often people are losing more than just fat – they are losing lean body tissue (i.e. protein) and fluid. While I do admit that many people find success on certain diets, the way to lose weight sensibly is through healthier eating habits and lifestyle changes that are maintained in the long term. Often the "lose weight quick" schemes leave people feeling hungry, and the body starts to have cravings for real food and variety. Often these diets are depleted of nutrients, fibre or one of the major macronutrients (i.e. carbs or fat predominantly). The body has its own intuition, and 'breaking the diet' is one way it can receive the nourishment it needs. Unfortunately, people are often very self critical when they 'break the diet'...feeling like they have failed, as though they have let themselves down, given in to willpower, etc. By the end of it all, people still wonder 'am I overweight?' How come these people didn’t question whether the method of weight loss was the problem in the first place? When your body cries out in hunger, or starts fatiguing from too little carbohydrates, you can only ignore instinct for so long.  Exercise The more exercise a person does, the more calories they burn. Exercise is known to increase the metabolism, and increase muscle mass. Often people think being busy equates to doing exercise. Being busy by running the kids to and from basketball practice is not being active. Being active should involve some form of extra activity each day. Click here to leave the 'am I overweight?' page and learn about the benefits to exercise Tips for weight loss
FINAL NOTE... If you are serious about losing weight, my best advice would be to consult with a registered/accredited practising dietitian. They have extensive nutrition knowledge and can tailor an eating plan to suit your individual needs. If you're asking the question "am I overweight?" and feel that a consult with a dietitian would be useful, click on the link that is relevant to you to find one! American Dietetic Association British Dietetic Association Dietitians Association of Australia Return to top
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