Are you Overweight?

If you need to lose weight safely, naturally or whatever it is, first you need to understand whether you are overweight, underweight or normal. How to know about it?

You can use Body Mass Index – BMI to know what is your BMI range, what to do next. Or you can calculate your BMI range yourself.

First, measure your height in meters, then measure your weight in kilos. Think, you don’t know your height in meters, you know your height in feet. Then how to convert it to meters. You can use online converter or your windows calculator to convert it.

Or you can do it manually. For an example, think you are 5 feet and 7 inches in height. Then multiply those 5 feet by 30.48 to convert ft. to cm. Then multiply 7 inches by 2.54 to convert inches to cm.

The answers are 5 × 30.48 = 152.4 cm, 7 × 2.54 = 17.78 cm. Then add both values together, 152.4 + 17.78 = 170.1 cm. Divide 170 cm by 100 to covert cm to m. Then your height is 1.7 meters.

Find the square value of it, 1.7 × 1.7 = 2.89 m². Then if your weight / body mass is 78 kilograms, divide your weight by the square value of your height. Then your BMI range is 78 ÷ 2.89 = 26.9 kg/m². This is your BMI value.

But how do you know whether you are underweight, overweight or normal? Refer this table to get that. According to above example, you are overweight.

Category	BMI Range – kg/m2
Severe Thiness	<16
Moderate Thiness	16 – 17
Mild Thinness	17 – 18.5
Normal	18.5 – 25
Overweight	25 – 30
Obese Class I	30 – 35
Obese Class II	35 – 40
Obese Class III	>40

Now you can easily calculate your height, weight and your BMI value, then you can know in what stage of weight you are at. If you are underweight, I’ve already written an article about underweight, you can read it.

Causes of Being Overweight

• Physical Inactivity – People who are physically inactive are more likely to be overweight, which can sometimes lead to obesity.
  
• Overeating – Overeating and physical inactivity are linked. This is because lazy people eat more and spend time without doing any physical activity. This can lead to weight gain over time and many other health problems.
  
• Genetics – Another main factor of overweight or obesity is you genes. Your genetics play a major role in your weight.
  
• Stress and Emotional factors – You stress, anxiety and other emotional factors can help you to gain weight and it can lead to obesity overtime.

Risks Associated with being Overweight

• Higher levels of LDL cholesterol »»
• High Blood Pressure »»
• Coronary Heart Disease
• Stroke
• Type II Diabetes »»
• Osteoarthritis
• Breathing Problems
• Various pains in the body
• Difficulty in performing certain activities

10 Effective Ways to Lose Weight Safely in 30 Days

Lose weight and get a sexy, shaped body like Jennifer Lopez’s or Shakira’s or get a six pack like Hrithik Roshan’s or Tiger Shroff’s are not possible in 30 days.

But you will see that you have lost a few kilos or pounds and your health has improved in 30 days. After that, maintain your body in the right way, then it is an easy task to get a body like a celebrity.

01. Avoid Sugar

Sugar and sugary foods are high in calories and increase the risk of weight gain. Consuming excessive amounts of sugar or sugary foods such as sweets, candies, cookies and sugary beverages can lead to gain your weight.

Sugar has 16 calories in one teaspoon and 387 calories in 100 grams. Limit consumption of sugar and other sugary foods or beverages.

Fructose does not raise the blood glucose appreciably, yet is even more strongly linked to obesity and diabetes than glucose.

02. Avoid Fried Foods

Fried foods are loaded with a large amount of calories and unhealthy fat. So, fried foods like french-fries, potato chips, fried fish, fried chicken have a lot of calories and a lot of unhealthy fat.

Avoid or limit consumption of fried foods. Consuming excessive amount of fried foods can lead to increase LDL cholesterol level in your body. Also, it will increase your weight, increase risk of heart problems, body fat and many more health problems.

03. Avoid Chocolates

Everyone, regardless of age, likes to eat chocolate. But chocolates are made of milk, cocoa and high amounts of added sugar. All of them are high in calories. So, chocolates have high amounts of calories and fat.

It can lead to gain weight. But there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that these foods increase or decrease your weight. Just depending on the number of calories and fat in those foods, we can assume that they will increase your weight.

However, avoiding excessive consumption of any food is good for your health. Because there is an optimal level for every nutrient, that your body needs.

04. Fruits

Many fruits are high in vitamins and minerals and low in calories. Eating moderate amount of fruits daily helps to get a healthy life.

Eating apples, grapes, passion fruit, berries and pineapple can help you lose weight. Avocado is another great fruit. But we have also added avocado in our ‘weight gain’ article.

That’s because avocado is a healthy fruit. You can get so many benefits from it, whether it increases or decreases your weight.

05. Moderate Your Protein Consumption

Foods rich in protein can help you to reduce your weight and build your muscles. But we should consider about plant based food to get protein instead of animal source foods (foods come from animals).

Because foods come from animals have high amounts of calories and also unhealthy fat. But plant based foods are not like that. Sometimes they have high amounts of calories but very low amounts of fat, but competitive amount of protein.

For example, if we consider cheese and chickpeas as two sources of protein, 100 grams of cheese contains 25 grams of protein and 100 grams of chickpeas contains 19 grams of protein.

But 100 grams of cheese has 33 grams of fat and 402 calories, 100 grams of chickpeas contains 6 grams of fat and 364 calories. So isn’t it better to get protein from plant-based foods than animal source foods?

You can add chickpeas, mung bean (green gram), cowpeas, millet, winged bean, bean to your diet.

06. Increase the use of Vegetables

Vegetables rich in vitamins, fiber, potassium, folate and many more nutrients. If you can add more vegetables than animal source foods, it is better for your overall health.

Because, animal source foods build your muscles quickly and they can give you lot of proteins and other nutrients than plant-based foods, but also they have high amounts of unhealthy fat.

But if you are overweight or obese, You can focus your attention on vegetables. For example, carrots rich in vitamin A and other minerals, also if you drink carrot juice you can get more benefits especially for your skin and also for your eyes.

Carrots are low in protein, low in calories, and low in fat. So it would be a good idea to add more carrots to your diet as it has no effect on weight gain.

And try to add these vegetables to your diet; leaks, brinjals, cabbage, beans, broccoli, tomato etc.

07. Do more Exercises

Perhaps, your laziness is the main reason for your weight. Therefore, regular exercise can help you lose a few pounds.

08. Hardworking

Exercising and hardworking are two different activities. Try to clean your garden, dig a hole to plant a tree, dig a ditch to drain water from the garden, wash your car, try to replace tires, try to create a pond for your garden, pave your carpark with interlocking bricks, try to build a fence and more can be considered as hardworking at home.

And real hard-works are building walls, plastering them, build a rubble foundation, build cement bricks, painting, driving heavy dump trucks, operating industrial machines like backhoe, excavators, road rollers, motor graders and more.

Try to do them as you can to lose your weight. Generally, those who do such work are less likely to have health problems, such as heart disease, obesity, and high cholesterol.

09. Ease Your Stress

Sometimes stress can be a reason for loss of weight sometimes, gain your weight. This can happen with your hormonal imbalances.

Not only for your weight, it can also cause of many health problems especially heart related problems, sleeping problems, headaches and more.

Try to meditate and get advice from a mentor to relieve your stress. It will help you to maintain your health at an optimal stage.

10. Dieting

Dieting is a very effective way to lose your weight naturally. Dieting does not mean stop eating any food for a long time. Dieting is following a diet plan. But it also reduces the consumption of many foods such as high fat foods, sugary foods and more.

By following a diet plan you can achieve a healthy life and and bye-bye to many health issues. And you can also get a well-shaped body.