…is probably among the most common questions many people ask themselves. As you might remember from my recent post, your body weight impacts our health in a number of ways. In fact, how much you weigh (and conversely how much you eat) is even more important than what you eat. 

 

Therefore, having a good target weight in mind when starting a diet is definitely important so in this post, I will give you a short overview of what weight ranges count as normal, overweight and obese. 

 

When determining the ideal health range for your height, most health professionals will use the Body Mass Index (BMI) for their calculations, which is defined as your body weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of your height (in meters). So for example, if someone weighs 80 kilograms and is 1.8 meters tall their BMI will be around 24.69.

 

Your BMI will then be checked to see where it falls on the following range:

 

Less than 18.5: Underweight

Between 18.5 and 25: Healthy weight

Between 25 and 30: Overweight

Over 30: Obese

 

Here is a table that includes these weight ranges, ordered by height: 

 

 

 

Definitely not! 

 

The BMI is the simplest measurement out there to estimate the health impact of a person’s weight. With this simplicity come quite a few drawbacks:

 

– It does not take into account waist, hip or chest measurements

– It does not take into account body fat and muscle mass percentages

– It does not take into account bone density (or generall bone mass)

 

What this means is that a well-trained athlete might have a higher BMI than the average untrained person of the same height (due to larger amounts of muscle in the athlete). But the athlete will have less body fat, a smaller waist and most likely enjoy better health.

 

 

 

Despite these problems, the BMI is still a good basic standard to show you what a healthy weight would look like. For the average person, if your weight falls within this range it will generally be regarded as healthy. This doesn’t mean gaining or losing weight will have no impact, but it simply means that any effects on your health will be minor.

 

However, if you are outside your range, losing weight (if you are overweight) and gaining weight if you are underweight will have a pretty substantial effect on your health and should, therefore, be prioritized.

 

Of course, always keep in mind that these figures are estimates and should be treated as such. You aren’t automatically “unhealthy” if you are outside your weight range and automatically healthy if you are within.

 

But what we can say is that based on the available data the likelihood of health is higher inside the ideal range and lower outside the optimal range. Also, the further you are away, the higher the chances of poor health.