Are you at a healthy weight? What would a healthy weight look like to you? The US Department of Health’s official assessment of healthy weight is a number known as BMI or Body Mass Index. To find out your BMI go to http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html
A BMI from 19-24.9 is considered healthy, while someone with a BMI between 25-30 would be considered overweight. Anything above 30 is considered obese.
It’s important to note that muscle is more dense than fat and people who have more muscle often have a slightly higher, yet healthy, BMI.
The Body Mass Index can provide an idea about your weight but an accurate assessment of your health also needs to include a review of your physical activity, growth, and the relation of your lean body mass versus fat mass. This can be determined using a variety of assessment tools which measure your percent Body Fat. For those looking for a more accurate assessment of your Body Fat or Body Composition it is best to seek a fitness or nutrition professional.
What is lean body mass and why is it important? Lean body mass is the fat-free mass of the body, or total body weight minus the fat mass. Lean body mass includes your muscles, organs, skin, water and bones. Men tend to have higher percentages of lean body mass (LBM) than women, due to male hormones and increased musculature compared to the average woman. Lean body mass is "metabolically active" meaning it burns more calories than fat mass does. In turn the more muscle you have the more efficient your metabolism is.
Fat Mass is categorized into 2 separate functions:
Essential fat is the fat necessary for normal body functioning. Essential fat for women is 10-13% and 2-5% for men
Non-essential fat, or storage fat, are the reserves stored in the body, part of which protects internal organs in the chest and abdomen.
Recommendations for Body Fat percentages:
Females- 15 - 25% is considered optimal, 25 - 30% is considered fair and 30% and above is considered obese.
The optimal amount of body fat is higher for women due to the reproductive demands of women.
Males- 10 - 20% body fat is considered optimal, 20 - 25% is considered fair and 25% above is considered obese.
All of this information gives you an idea of what good and reasonable weight loss should be or lets you know if you are already in a healthy range. The role of diet and exercise should be to give us the longest, healthiest life possible and not to make us look a certain way. When you feel good, you look good!