How do I know if I'm at a healthy weight?

[Rockell]

How do I know if I'm at a healthy weight? I don't look overweight (I'm pretty tall. People never realize that I weigh as much as I do.), but I feel very out of shape. The summer heat has really affected my activity level. I never want to walk anywhere whereas in the winter I walk all the time. Anyway, I want to start an exercise routine and monitor my diet a bit more, but I'm not sure how much weight it's healthy for me to lose. Should I just concentrate on healthy choices instead and not worry about weight so much?

I'm 5'10" and about 145-150 pounds right now (don't have a scale at home, I was 148 the last time I weighed myself at the gym a week ago). Everywhere I read that this is the healthy weight for my height, yet I don't feel healthy at all compared to where I was a few years ago. Don't you hate how much harder it is to stay in shape as you get older?!

 

[Raerae]

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/...calculator.htm

You can use that to calculate your Body Mass Index, which will give you a rough idea what a "healthy" weight is considered for your height.

Weight alone isn't necessarily a indication of health eigther. As things like diet and exercise also play a role.

I'm like a 16.9 BMI atm heh...

 

[kaliraksha]

Yikes, Raerae doesn't that usually mean you are underweight? =(

 

[Raerae]

lol yeh...

18 - 18.5 is the bare minimum for the medical, "healthy weight" for my height heh... Depends on who's BMI calc you use.

Normally i'm at around 17.8ish, or 110, which is still "technically" underweight. But I've been stable at that weight range for as long as I can remember. My DL that I got when I was 16 said 5'6" 110. So I'm not really worried about it.

I just had a moody week, so I lost like 5 lbs... Happens =P

 

[as_cute_as_pie]

i *really* dislike using the bmi as i really struggle to understand it for example i think i am 5'8 and i definatley weigh 119 pounds which makes my bmi 18.1 and 'underweight' yet if im a inch shorter my bmi changes to 18.6 which makes me normal
its very confusing and so varied and most dont ask if your'e male or female

 

[Raerae]

Thats because if you were 5'7", you would have 1 inch less of body mass, and so your healthy weight goes down.

Think of it like if you had 10 people who all weighed the same but were different heights, starting at like 4' and going up to 6'. They would be rounder/shorter on the 4' side, and slimmer and taller on the 6' side.

So two people can weigh the same weight, but one person could be obese, while the other person could be underweight. Since their different heights distributes the weight differently. A taller person of the exact same build is going to weight more than a shorter person, just because they are taller and have more mass (meat on their bones so to speak. More muscle, fat, larger organs,etc. Even though they have the same body shape.). All of that contributes to your BMI.

 

[Raerae]

Quote:

Originally Posted by as_cute_as_pie most dont ask if your'e male or female

Yeh i think that makes a big diff, since a boy and girl of the same height, i would justb expect the man to have a, "heavier" build, and thus a higher healthy BMI.