What’s the right weight for you?

Do you need to lose weight? If so, how much? For the most accurate answer, calculate your Body Mass Indexdefine (BMI). To work this out, divide your weight (in kilograms) by the square of your height (in meters)

According to the latest guidelines, a healthy BMI is between 20 and 25. The range is wide because there is great individual variation in bone and muscle mass among healthy people. Women tend to have less muscle and bone than men do, so a healthy BMI for a woman usually falls toward the bottom of the range. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is regarded as overweight; 30 or higher is considered obese.

Start up Strategies:

Rather than denying yourself from your favorite foods, reduce the portion size. Three other small but essential steps for long lasting success include:

• Eat some fat: Eating about 30g of fat a day avoids the ‘rebound’ effect.

• Watch portion size: Weight gain results from eating too many kilojoules, no matter where they come from. Cut the typical portion size of everything, except fruits and vegetables, by at least 25 percent.

o Eat out less often in restaurants, where portions tend to be very big.

o To avoid temptations, avoid putting serving bowls on table.

• Move more: Take a brisk 20 or 30 minute walk each day. Even small, fidgety moves, such as chewing gum or drumming your fingers, can burn off about 45 KJ an hour.

However, if you are overweight, you do not have to get down to ‘normal’ weight by cutting down drastically on your meals. Instead, use the following simple procedures with regard to food items;

• Remove all visible fats from meats.

• Steam, grill or bake meat, chicken and fish.

• Use a non-stick pan to stir fry dishes and decrease the amount of oil used

• Use recipes that use low fat cooking methods such as sup, tomyam, assam and pindang.

• Skim off excess fat after cooling soups in fridge

• Cut down on fried foods.

It’s a long, tortuous road to tread. However, it is important to tread and get that weight just right. Needless to say, the end result is worth the effort.