Maintaining the ideal body weight is difficult all year round. Eating goes beyond the birthdays, holidays, and even the little celebrations. Every single day, your body looks for food. This occurs since your mind looks for all the food that you love. You have to admit it – avoiding food is like avoiding an imminent tsunami. Running away from it is futile because it will only catch up with you. As a matter of fact, running away from food will only make you want to binge more.

The best way to maintain your ideal body weight is to get to know yourself, your body structure, your personal ideal weight, your body mass index (BMI), what triggers your cravings, your favorite workout, and your schedule. Keeping your weight in a safe range is a lifelong commitment. While you do not have to worry about it every single second of the day, it is your priority to keep yourself healthy all your life by keeping an eye on your weight.

Your body will love you if you keep your weight healthy. It has already been proven over and over again that certain diseases such as high blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases are caused by excess fat in the body. Your fat neighbor who prefers to stay glued to the couch while watching TV and munching on a bag of potato chips is more prone to a heart attack than your other neighbor who keeps a balanced diet and jogs around the area regularly. Maintaining your ideal body weight is important not only for confidence, self-esteem, and vanity. Keeping within your normal weight range will give you more energy to do your activities. Death is inevitable, yes, but you don’t have to hasten it.

What is BMI?

The body mass index or BMI enters the picture when the subject of ideal weight is being discussed. There is no one ideal weight range for all people. People come in different bone structures and body shapes. A big-boned girl at 55 should not expect to weigh around the same weight of a waif-like girl at 53. Relying on the weighing scale alone is not the best way to determine your ideal body weight. What you see on the weighing scale will help your determine what your weight should be but it shouldn’t be everything. Your BMI should be determined by two things: your weight and height.

How to Calculate Body Mass Index

Calculating your body mass index is easy. You just have to divide your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared.

Do not use other units of measurement to avoid confusion and error.

The table of reference of the BMI is fairly simple.

If your result is less than 20, you are underweight.

Anything from 20 to 25 is a sign that you are within the range of your ideal body weight.

You have to take precautions if your result leaves you somewhere from 25 to 30 because it means that you’re overweight.

You seriously have to start addressing your weight issues if your BMI ranges from 30 to 40, because you’re obese.

Remember, anything above 40 screams obese.

At that point, you are at a high risk of incurring a heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer.

The BMI is not the ultimate indicator of a healthy weight. For instance, the BMI cannot dictate the ideal weight of pregnant women because they may need more fat in the body for the growing human being in their womb.

This cannot be a sure-fire way to determine if an athlete is beyond his or her ideal body weight because it does not consider the muscle mass. Remember, most athletes have heavier muscles than average people.

However, even if it’s not the only way to determine the right weight, BMI is still reliable.

Keeping Within the Ideal BMI

Don’t ever take for granted the greatest two pieces of advice for maintaining the right weight diet and exercise. The principle of maintaining the ideal body weight is quite simple. If you gain more calories than you burn, then your BMI will most likely go up.

If you maintain a balanced formula, then you’re on the right track. Don’t go for a crash diet. Instead, eat more fruits and vegetables. Use oil, butter, and other high-fat elements sparingly.

Stay away from junk food and high-sugar drinks. If you are craving excessively, don’t give into it until after 15-20 minutes. If you don’t crave for it anymore, it wasn’t hunger talking.

Exercise is also necessary in keeping the ideal body weight. The recommended dose of exercise is at least 2-3 times a week, for at least 30-45 minutes a day. The goal is to keep the BMI healthy, not to become a bodybuilder, unless you really want to. If you are new to exercise, focus on the minimum requirement before you push yourself harder.

Don’t ask yourself what your ideal weight should be. Ask yourself, what is my BMI? This is a good start in maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle.