If you’re overweight or obese, you probably already know it. You avoid stepping on a scale. Your pants don’t fit properly. You’re tired and sluggish. You don’t sleep well. And you consider moving from the couch to the refrigerator and back again a contact sport. If that sounds a little like you, you’re not alone.
An estimated 33.9 percent of all adults in the United States are overweight. And another 35.1 percent are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lack of exercise is a primary cause for being overweight or obese, along with piles of poor food choices.
Calculate Body Mass Index
The percentages of overweight and obese people in the U.S are calculated based on national standards used to measure Body Mass Index. This is a ratio of your height and weight. If your Body Mass Index is 25 to 29.9, you are overweight. If your Body Mass Index is 30 or above, you are obese.
Use this calculator from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to calculate your own Body Mass Index. Then compare your Body Mass Index with national standards to see how you measure up and figure out what your ideal weight should be based on your height.
Take a Look at Your Food Choices
If you’re like most people, you could stand to lose 10 pounds or more to lower your Body Mass Index, improve your health, and lower your risk for chronic diseases. Aiming to get 30 to 60 minutes of moderate physical exercise a day should be part of your daily routine. But perhaps even more important than exercise when it comes to weight management is the foods you eat.
And you probably weigh more than you should if your diet looks anything like the typical American diet observed during the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. In this national survey, researchers collected data from an estimated 40,000 people. One of the many observations made from this large sample of the population was a snapshot of the typical American diet. If you’re overweight or obese, your diet probably looks a lot like this…In a typical year, the average American eats:
- 24 pounds of ice cream
- 53 gallons of soda
- 2.7 pounds of salt
- 12 pounds of chocolate
- 29 pounds of French fries
- 23 pounds of pizza
That’s a mountain of saturated fat, sodium, sugar, and empty calories that can quickly pack on the pounds and increase your risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a long list of other health problems. If this list of food represents the major food groups in your diet, you’re not doing your waistline any favors. But that hardly means, you should throw in the towel and forget about changing your ways.
Improve Your Diet
If you’ve ever tried to stick to a restrictive diet, you’re probably tried and failed like most people. It’s tough to give up your favorite foods cold-turkey, and start eating foods that are completely different from your usual diet overnight. In fact, an estimated 80 percent of people who attempt to stick to a diet fail and give up, according to research at Loyola University.
Fortunately, an estimated 20 percent who manage to follow a healthy eating plan lose weight and keep it off. But for these people, success is typically a matter of trial and error combined with a little persistence.
If you really want to lose weight, one of the key areas to take a hard look at is your diet. But you can’t expect to become a health-foods expert or extreme healthy eater overnight. Making behavioral lifestyle changes can take time. Exercise, sleep, and stress management are all important elements linked to weight management. But none of those things can trump a healthy diet. If you really want to lose weight, practice calorie control.
Just how many calories are you consuming per day? Take a look at the Nutrition Facts Panel on the back of a package, and you’ll see that food recommendations are based on eating 2,000 calories a day. And that’s reasonable for most adults. But if you’re not aware of how many calories you consuming, you can easily munch and gulp your way through a 5,000-calorie day.
Read food labels and keep a food journal to keep track of calories. And aim to make small changes. Eat an apple instead of a candy bar. Drink a glass of water instead of a soda. Replace unhealthy foods with healthier options and you’ll be on your way to lowering your Body Mass Index and improving your health.
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