Healthy Diet
Excess body fat leads to health problems such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Health professionals use a measurement called body mass index (BMI) to classify an adult’s weight as healthy, overweight, or obese. BMI describes body weight relative to height and is correlated with total body fat content in most adults.
To find your BMI, use the chart on this page or
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s BMI calculator.
BMI range:
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18.5-25 — healthy range
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25-30 - overweight
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30 or higher — obese
Having excess abdominal body fat is also a health risk. Men with a waist of more than 40 inches around and women with a waist of 35 inches or more are at risk for health problems.
More than 60 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the number of overweight people has been slowly climbing since the 1980s, the number of obese adults has nearly doubled since then.
Excess weight and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year in the United States, second only to deaths related to smoking, says the CDC. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, gallbladder disease and joint pain caused by excess uric acid (gout). Excess weight can also cause interrupted breathing during sleep (sleep apnea) and wearing away of the joints (osteoarthritis).
To lose weight, you must eat less and move more. Your body needs to burn more calories than you take in.
