Monday, November 3, 2008

Healthy or not?

Some people think thatyour BMI number rules and determines if you are healthy or not, and that if you have a high BMI number then you must not be healthy. Well all BMI stands for is Body Mass Index and it isn't the best way to measure one's health. For instance you could have a high number BMI, but be a very muscular person and super healthy. Remember muscle weights more than fat.

A better way to measure health is by how you feel. Are you on tons of medication for things that could be controlled by some weight loss? Do you have diseases that are curable with weight loss?

For instance. When I weighed between 215-220 I had asthma. I was on an asthma medication and had an inhaler for sudden symptoms. I also had severe back problems and usually took pain medications for those on a regular basis.

Since loosing 80 pounds I have been able to go off all my asthma medication, in fact I was declared to not have asthma anymore and not even need a perscription for the inhaler. I also don't need back medication anymore. All this due to weight loss, or so the doctor's say.

Now am I healthy? That's a good question that I've asked myself many times.
A couple days ago I was with a friend of mine in her office and she has one of those special scales that measure Body Fat. She is a personal trainer and we talked about weight and body fat, etc.

I stepped on her scale to see what it said for my body. According to the scale, I currently weigh 138.4 and my % of fat was .258, which means my percentage of lean weight is .742 or in simpler terms my pounds of fat are 35.70 and my lean pounds were 102.70

The healthy range for % of fat is 21-33% and since I'm a 25.8% of fat I fall in the healthy range. That was so comforting to know.

If I wanted to be at the bottom of the healthy range at a 21%, but still be healthy then I only need to loose 8.4 pounds. And that would make my weight 130

So all those charts on the internet that say I should be 120 are full of crap. For my height I should be 130 at the lowest. So glad I found this out. 8.4 pounds will be a lot easier to take off then 18.4 pounds and I'll feel tons better about it.

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