How do you know if you need to lose weight? This question is tricky, with everyone’s situation being different. But ask yourself this: Were you a healthy, active person in your early 20s? If so, what did you weigh then? Do you weigh more now? You shouldn’t. By your early 20s, you’re pretty much done growing (at least vertically!). Unless you’ve spent most days in the gym since then lifting weights, it’s probably not an extra 20 pounds of muscle you’ve gained.
Overall, it’s better to focus on your body composition than exclusively on your weight. Your body composition is what percentage of your weight is lean body mass (muscles, bones, and everything else that isn’t fat) and what percentage is fat (both the fat stored in and around organs of your body and what you can see or feel beneath your skin). Concentrating on body composition recognizes that you can be very fit, but still be “overweight” by common standards. Measurements of body composition get people to realize that you can be at what the weight charts would tell you is a “desirable” weight, but still not be fit, or even healthy.
Think about how many people keep smoking because they don’t want to gain 10 pounds. You can starve yourself and be at a “desirable” weight, but be doing major damage to your body. It’s how your body is constructed, not just how many pounds it weighs, that’s important.
A good way to determine whether you have a decent body composition is by calculating your body mass index. This involves some math, so get out the calculator and follow these steps:
Overall, it’s better to focus on your body composition than exclusively on your weight. Your body composition is what percentage of your weight is lean body mass (muscles, bones, and everything else that isn’t fat) and what percentage is fat (both the fat stored in and around organs of your body and what you can see or feel beneath your skin). Concentrating on body composition recognizes that you can be very fit, but still be “overweight” by common standards. Measurements of body composition get people to realize that you can be at what the weight charts would tell you is a “desirable” weight, but still not be fit, or even healthy.
Think about how many people keep smoking because they don’t want to gain 10 pounds. You can starve yourself and be at a “desirable” weight, but be doing major damage to your body. It’s how your body is constructed, not just how many pounds it weighs, that’s important.
A good way to determine whether you have a decent body composition is by calculating your body mass index. This involves some math, so get out the calculator and follow these steps:
- Determine your weight in kilograms by multiplying your weight in pounds by 0.454.
- Determine your height in meters by multiplying your height in inches by 0.0254.
- Square your height in meters (multiply it by itself).
- Divide your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters. The result is your body mass index. For example, if you are 5’10” and weigh 150 pounds, you would multiply 150 by 0.454, for a weight in kilograms of 68.1. Your height in inches is 70; multiply that by 0.0254 for a height in meters of 1.778. Square that number to get 3.16. Finally, divide 68.1 (weight in kilograms) by 3.16 (square of height in meters) to get a body mass index of 21.5. Desirable body mass index ranges are 19 to 25 for both men and women. If your index is above 25, you probably are carrying too much fat.
Of course, you may not need to do this test. For many people, a look in the mirror while naked does the trick. Is the waist in your jeans a few inches more than when you were in your early 20s? Has your shirt or dress size increased? As I said, unless you’ve been training with Arnold Schwarzenegger, your clothes probably fit differently because of gaining fat, not muscle. Running can help you to lose the extra fat.
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