What Should Be Your Ideal Body Weight?

What is Ideal Body Weight?

Firstly, let us see what does the term ideal weight mean. Ideal body weight refers to the weight that a person is supposed to have in proportion to his/her height, age and gender. Every one of us differs in height, thus, the ideal body weight of each person also differ from each other. These days, ideal weight can be easily calculated online.

Why is it Important to Have Ideal Body Weight?

Maintaining your weight in proportion to your height, not just makes you look good but is also beneficial to your health.

Having a balanced weight prevents you from a number of heart-threatening diseases like diabetes, blood pressure, cardiac disorders and many others.

Most importantly, a healthy body adds to your personality, makes you feel good about yourself and lets you enjoy life to the fullest. You tend to feel more active and lively from the outside when you have a balanced internal system.

How to Know When Your Overweight/Obese?

Overweight can be a result of various factors such as extra muscle, bone, fat, and/or water. You can always keep a regular check on your body weight to know if it is stable, has gone up or vice versa. If you find your weight slightly more than your ideal weight, do not panic. The best way to resolve this issue is to follow a balanced lifestyle as mentioned in our previous blog

A number of other things that contribute to a person's body weight include environment, family history and genetics, metabolism (the way your body changes food and oxygen into energy), and behavior or habits.

How to Maintain Ideal Body Weight?

The key to maintaining a healthy weight is to balance energy. The number of calories/energy that you intake throughout the day should be equal to the number of calories that you use for things such as breathing, digestion and various physical activities.

If you intake fewer calories than that your body uses, you are likely to be underweight and if you exceed the number of calories, you will gradually start gaining weight and turn obese.

There should be a balance between the two in your everyday life if you want to maintain your weight. And those who want to reduce weight, are advised to reduce intake of at least 500 calories on a daily basis. For more accurate intake of daily energy, you can always consult your dietitian/nutritionist.