I recently did some research for an article that was requested by several readers to my website. The question was, Am I Overweight? This got me thinking about how we determine healthy weight and the tools we use such as the healthy weight chart.
When using the healthy weight chart as a means to determine if we are overweight we need to remember that this is a very broad and simplistic method.
The healthy weight chart or height weight chart can give a result that leaves some people confused.
These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.
There are some questions about the accuracy of this system. The height weight chart has been around for several decades and many of us have seen it pinned up on the medical practitioner's wall when we have visited the surgery.
The fact is that due to many changes in lifestyle and the modern diet this age old method may well be due for retirement. In some cases it has produced some very misleading results.
All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a healthy weight range.
Healthy weight range like many other similar systems is designed by taking in information from many sources of population data and averaging it out to produce the system.
For most people the height weight chart gives quite an accurate indication of where you are within the band of the healthy weight range.
So is the height weight chart a reliable indicator of healthy weight?
Caution, there are cases where the results have been incorrect for example:
We identified a subject (over 6 foot in height) who has now been assessed as being at risk of fatty liver disease, even though his healthy weight range score indicated otherwise. This is an example of the problems with this simple system.
When fat is accumulated in the middle abdominal area it can increase the probability of fatty liver disease.
Men with an abdominal circumference of above 40 inches who are over 6 feet tall could be mislead as they may be considered in the overweight but not at risk category according to their BMI using the healthy weight chart.
Conclusion: Instead of relying on a generalised BMI healthy weight system you should pay attention to fat distribution in the abdominal region and also overall body fat percentage as a more accurate and personalised approach to determining healthy weight.
When using the healthy weight chart as a means to determine if we are overweight we need to remember that this is a very broad and simplistic method.
The healthy weight chart or height weight chart can give a result that leaves some people confused.
These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.
There are some questions about the accuracy of this system. The height weight chart has been around for several decades and many of us have seen it pinned up on the medical practitioner's wall when we have visited the surgery.
The fact is that due to many changes in lifestyle and the modern diet this age old method may well be due for retirement. In some cases it has produced some very misleading results.
All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a healthy weight range.
Healthy weight range like many other similar systems is designed by taking in information from many sources of population data and averaging it out to produce the system.
For most people the height weight chart gives quite an accurate indication of where you are within the band of the healthy weight range.
So is the height weight chart a reliable indicator of healthy weight?
Caution, there are cases where the results have been incorrect for example:
We identified a subject (over 6 foot in height) who has now been assessed as being at risk of fatty liver disease, even though his healthy weight range score indicated otherwise. This is an example of the problems with this simple system.
When fat is accumulated in the middle abdominal area it can increase the probability of fatty liver disease.
Men with an abdominal circumference of above 40 inches who are over 6 feet tall could be mislead as they may be considered in the overweight but not at risk category according to their BMI using the healthy weight chart.
Conclusion: Instead of relying on a generalised BMI healthy weight system you should pay attention to fat distribution in the abdominal region and also overall body fat percentage as a more accurate and personalised approach to determining healthy weight.
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If you would like to learn more about healthy weight see this article Healthy Weight Chart
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