Simply put, a healthy weight means you
have the right amount of body fat in
relation to your overall body mass. It’s a
weight that allows you to feel energetic,
reduces health risks, helps prevent
premature aging (such as worn-out joints
from carrying around too much weight)
and improves your quality of life.
Stepping on the scale only tells you your
total weight — including bone, muscle
and fluid — not how much of your
weight is fat. The scale also doesn’t tell
you where you’re carrying that fat. In
determining health risks, both of these
factors are more important than is weight
alone.
So how do you know if you’re at a
healthy weight? While there are no
objective standards for what weight
“looks good,” there are standards for
what determines a healthy weight.
The most accurate way to determine how
much fat you’re carrying is to have a
body fat analysis. This requires a
professional using a reliable method of
estimation, such as weighing a person
underwater or using an X-ray procedure
called dual energy X-ray
absorptiometry. Either method can be
expensive and fairly complicated. A
procedure called bioelectric impedance
analysis is more widely available, but
its accuracy can vary.
The most common method to determine
weight-related health risk is the National
Institutes of Health threefold approach:
Your body mass index (BMI),
The circumference of your waist,
Personal medical history
