Maintaining a healthy weight can help to protect you against many serious diseases.
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- High Blood Pressure
- Cholesterol
- Sleep Apnea
- Some Cancers
Certain Joint Diseases
Your healthy weight is established using the Body Mass Index (BMI) calculator. BMI is an international standard for measuring excess weight and obesity. Your BMI can be used to assess the risk of diseases related to carrying too much or too little weight. You get your BMI by dividing your weight in kilos by your height in meters (squared):
Or by dividing your weight in pounds by your height in feet (squared), and multiplying by 703:
However, keep in mind that BMI is not effective in calculating the healthy weight of a high-level athlete, a pregnant or breastfeeding woman, a child, a teenager or a person over 65 years of age.
Your Waistline
The most dangerous fat for health is the fat attached to the organs of the abdomen. One of the riskiest types of obesity when it comes to cardiovascular disease is abdominal obesity, also called visceral obesity. The fat that penetrates under your skin does not have the same consequences for your health as the fat that accumulates in your belly. In fact, the abnormally accumulated fat in your abdomen can increase your risk of developing several serious diseases:
- Type 2 Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
- Angina
- Stroke
Because the BMI is only based on weight compared to height and ignores the distribution of fat in the body, measuring the circumference of your waist allows for a more accurate assessment of the risk associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A person who has a healthy weight, but whose waist circumference is 102 cm or more for a man and 88 cm for a woman, has a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
The following classes of BMI measure the degree of excess weight in adult populations, as well as the risk of developing an illness:
| Classification | BMI | Risk of Illness |
|---|---|---|
| Extreme thinness | Less than 16 | High |
| Thinness | Less than 18.5 | Increased |
| Normal | 18.5 to 24.9 | Low |
| Overweight | 25.0 to 29.9 | Increased |
| Obesity – class 1 | 30.0 to 34.9 | High |
| Obesity – class 2 | 35.0 to 39.9 | Very High |
| Obesity – class 3 | 40.0 and more | Huge |
How do you measure your waist?
With a bare belly, stand up with your feet apart — at the width of your shoulders, use a measuring tape and place it under the last rib around your body. Measure your waist at the end of an expiration. Do not tuck your belly in; release it.
Risk classification of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension:
| Men | Women | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cm | Inch | Cm | Inch | |
| Low | <94 | <37 | <80 | <31.5 |
| Increased | >94 | >37 | >80 | >31.5 |
| High | >102 | >40 | >88 | >35 |
| Adapted diagram of the Canadian Guidelines for Adult Weight Classification | ||||