Health problems due to weight

[JohnGalsworthy]

With awareness about the need for fitness growing in society, a prominent factor that has come into play is, ‘How much should I weigh for my height and age’? In other words, ‘What is my ideal body weight’? To understand the reason behind this oft-asked question, let us first see what is ideal weight aka ideal body weight (IBW). Ideal body weight is a clinical standard to determine how much a person ‘ideally’ weighs as per one’s age, height, and gender. It is necessary to know your IBW because being underweight or overweight can lead to several health problems, chronic or otherwise. Please remember that your IBW should be calculated as per clinical parameters and not as per socially perpetrated, irrational notions of beauty.

A person’s weight keeps fluctuating till the age of 15. From then till around the age of 50, a person’s weight will increase by around 500 gms to 1 kg, keeping other factors like diet, physical activity etc. aside. The thumb rule to see if you are gaining or losing weight beyond an ideal level is to check whether the weight gain or loss per year is +5 or -5 kgs respectively from what your weight was at the age of 21. Weight increase farther beyond the ideal level can make a person overweight or obese. Both these factors increase the chances of heart disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal problems, sleep apnoea, infertility, and cancer amongst others. Being underweight can lead to problems like chronic fatigue, osteoporosis, anemia, skin problems, and irregular periods amongst others. ideal waist to hip ratio calculator