How do I Know if I am a Healthy Weight?

You can find out what a healthy weight means for you in a variety of ways.

The body mass index (BMI) is a measure that uses your height and weight to work out if your weight is healthy. The BMI calculation divides an adult’s weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared and can be used to determine if you are underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese.

You can check your BMI here

Being overweight is not just about how you look, it can have a serious impact on your health. The amount of fat you are carrying around your stomach is called visceral fat. Visceral fat surrounds internal organs such as the liver, pancreas and intestines. Higher amounts of this type of fat are linked to many health problems including type 2 diabetes and heart disease amongst others.

An easy way to tell if you have too much visceral fat is to measure how tall you are, then half this figure and your waist should be no more than this eg. If your height was 170cm then your waist should be less than 85cm.

Measure your height and cut a piece of string to this length, fold it in half then wrap it around your waist. If the string meets that’s good, if you can tie a knot, even better.