WEIGHT FORM, THIS UNKNOWN – The ideal weight is the weight range (between a maximum and a minimum) within which we should experience the pleasant sensation d physical well-being and set of full energy. Being of normal weight, in addition to making us feel good, lowers the risk of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and some heart conditions. The value of the ideal weight is not easy to calculate because numerous factors, including individual ones, contribute to it: in addition to gender, age and height, They also “weigh” bone structure, the amount of muscle mass in relation to the fat mass, some genetic variables. Scholars have developed a series of formula to calculate the ideal weight, the best known of which is thebody mass index (BMI), but there are also others, including Broca’s and Bernhardt’s formulas which take into consideration, in addition to height, weight and sex, also for example the circumference of the chest or other indicators. These indices provide indicative values, but they are useful to get an idea of how much our real weight differs from the ideal one and if it is necessary to run for cover.
A BIT OF HISTORY – The calculation of the ideal weight began to become important in the fifties of the last century, when a US insurance company, Metropolitan Life, began to study the correlation between body weight, disease and mortality, inserting the kg of weight among the indicators on the basis of which to calculate the size of insurance premiums. Since 2002, after careful studies, l‘World Health Organization, using the Body Mass Index as a measurement tool, he showed how obesity is the fifth of the ten leading causes of death, correlating it in Western countries with a loss of 7.4 years of life.
CALCULATION OF THE IDEAL WEIGHT – Calculating your ideal weight is not very difficult, even if it requires the control of many variables and it is therefore advisable to rely on guidance of a nutritionist. The simplest to calculate is thebody mass index: on the web there are several applications that, by entering the weight and height values in centimeters, calculate the BMI in a few moments. We remind you that the BMI, although it provides useful information, does not consider the composition of the weight and the structure of the person. If we try to calculate our BMI by hand, we must divide the weight expressed in kg by the square of the height expressed in meters. For example, a person who weighs 75 kilograms and is 1 meter 80 centimeters tall will have a BMI of: 75 / (1.80 x 1.80) = 75 / 3.24 = 23.1. The body mass index of the people of normal weight oscillates between 18.50 and 24.99: yes it is underweight between 16 and 18.49, while above an index 25 it is overweight. Obesity instead, it clicks with a value of 30, with various levels of severity, placed at 35, 40 and beyond. Useful information also comes from impedance scales, now also very popular in fitness centers, which provide body weight, the ratio between lean mass and fat mass, and other useful data. They are not easy to read and the data must always be interpreted by a specialist.
THE LIMITS OF CALCULATIONS – The BMI, as we have said, is an important indicator, but it must be interpreted together with other factors, for example the bone structure, the amount of fluid accumulated in the tissues, the ratio between muscle mass and fat mass and the district of the body in which the fat is placed, with particular attention to abdominal fat, dangerous to health. The relative simplicity of the BMI calculation should not mislead us and push us to dangerous do-it-yourself diets, which can be unbalanced from a nutritional point of view and trigger the so-called “Effetto yo-yo”, for which the lost weight is recovered in a short time with interest.
ACHIEVE AND STORE THE SHAPE WEIGHT – Even with all the necessary precautions, if from our home-made calculations we notice a significant discrepancy between our real weight and the ideal one indicated by the tables, some reflection is required. The best solution, as we have said, is to rely on a nutritionist for review our eating style and eliminate some bad habits. We learn to insert a space in our days for a bit of physical activity: to keep us healthy, the indication of the 10 thousand steps to be taken daily is already a good guideline, but the ideal is to walk them for at least 30-40 minutes at a brisk pace and without interruptions. Because there are no discounts: to lose weight you need to eat less and move more.