What do you imagine when hearing the phrase “healthy weight” or “ideal weight”? Is it a model of 90-60-90, a super muscular body, or maybe a well-fed man? Some people also believe that this index is equal to the weight you had when you were 18 years old, but this statement is also too frivolous.
What Is a Healthy Body Weight?
Despite there’s a variety of ways to calculate the ideal weight, this index is always individual, as it highly depends on the type of physique – the specific person’s body type. Scientists claim that the healthy weight is the ratio, the balance of the musculoskeletal system weight and the required fat percentage.
In simple terms, a healthy body weight is a weight at which the body functions most effectively and efficiently, allowing for maximum protection against disease and illness.
The body fat percentage for a man and a woman is completely different. Men normally have more musculoskeletal tissue, while the women’s hormonal background affects the increase of adipose tissue. Therefore, the norm of lipid (fat) tissue in the male body is defined as up to 15% of the total body weight, and in the female, it’s about 20%.
Besides, it’s impossible to define the healthy body weight without taking into account the human constitution. There are three types of physique:
- asthenic (light & thin bones)
- normosthenic (normal weight of bones)
- hypersthenic (broad, weighted bones).
You can define your type of constitution by measuring the circumference of your wrist in centimeters (Solovyov index): if the wrist circumference is less than 6 inches (for women) and less than 7 inches (for men), this is an asthenic body type. The girth of 6 – 6.6 inches (for women) and 7 – 7.9 inches (for men) reflects the normosthetic body type. If the wrist circumference is more than 6.6 inches (for women) and more than 7.9 inches (for men), their type of physique is hypersthenic.
Why Do You Need to Know Your Healthy Body Weight?
When starting the struggle against extra pounds for the ideal weight, you need to know what is your perfect individual healthy weight, which allows you for both looking stunning and feeling comfortable. This factor is essential not only for adults, but also for children, teenagers, and elder people.
How to Calculate Your Healthy Body Weight?
The most popular way to define if your current weight is healthy is by means of calculating your Body Mass Index or BMI (Quetelet index). It shows the degree of obesity if any, and the health risks connected with it. The formula for calculating it is very simple. Just divide the body weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters.
In metric measurements, if a person weighs 58 kilos and is 1.68 meters tall, their height squared will be 2.82.
58 divided by 2.82 gives a BMI of 20.5. As you can see in the table with the results, this index is normal and there aren’t any health risks:
| Body Mass Index (BMI) | Classification | Health Risks |
|---|---|---|
| 18.5 and under | Underweight | High |
| 18.5 – 24.9 | Normal healthy weight | Normal |
| 25.0 – 29.9 | Overweight | Increased |
| 30.0 – 34.9 | Obesity (I stage) | High |
| 35.0 – 39.9 | Obesity (II stage) | Very high |
| 40.0 and above | Obesity (III stage) | Extremely high |
The number of websites offers an online tool for calculating your BMI.
The definition of healthy body weight by means of BMI allows obtaining fairly clear results. But it does not take into account, the physique of a person. So, after you get your BMI, some corrections are needed.
Men under 66 inches and women under 61 inches should subtract 10% from the BMI. While the higher people (above 74 inches for men and above 68 inches for women) should add 10%.
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It’s completely up to you if to use only this world-recognized formula to define your healthy weight or to look for other charts and calculations. But remember to stay sharp if your index is rather good, and not to give up when it’s upsetting. Your body is in your hands, friend!
Written by Andrew Guerra from Thecrossfitshoes.com
