Your Weight, Your Health
If you are overweight, it can affect your health and how you feel about yourself. Being overweight can lead to some of the most serious health problems. Losing just a small amount of weight can help you feel good and improve your health.
There are lots of reasons why being overweight matters. Realising that your weight could affect your health is an important step towards making successful changes in your life.
Being overweight can put your health at risk. At worst, it can lead to life threatening conditions - but it can cause discomfort, pain and unhappiness in many other ways, too.
Most people who succeed in losing weight say that they feel better, have better health and have much more energy.
What is a Healthy Weight?
If you are an adult, doctors use something called Body Mass Index (BMI) to decide whether your weight could be affecting your health. To work out your BMI, you need to measure your height as well as your weight. To work out your BMI please visit: www.nhs.uk/tools/pages/healthyweightcalculator.aspx
How would Losing Weight make a difference?
For adults, losing just a little weight - even half a stone to a stone can bring important health benefits. if you lost 5-10% of your weight, it could reduce your blood pressure, risk of diabetes and blood cholesterol levels.
Why Have I gained Weight?
There are lots of reasons why you could gain weight. Here are just a few:
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High-calorie foods that are high in fat and sugar are widely available and are getting cheaper.
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Cooking less from raw ingredients and eating out of the home more frequently.
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Eating more snacks and fast food rather than regular meals.
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Drinking more canned and bottled sugary drinks.
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Bigger portion sizes.
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Eating for emotional reasons when stressed, bored or angry.
We are also much less active than ever before. It's easy to sit down for quite a lot of the day and move very little! Televisions, computers, cars and all the modern gadgets we use mean that most things in ever day life are less effort. If you are interested in becoming more active please visit our Active Living page.
How to Lose Weight
For many people, losing weight can be one of the greatest challenges they face. Some fail because they try to change everything in their life at once. The best way to succeed is to start by making two or three realistic changes that you can stick to - then, over time, you'll begin to see the results.
To lose weight, you need to take less energy into your body from food and drink than the amount of energy your body uses by being more active. This may sound simple but actually doing it - day in, day out, over weeks or months - needs planning and determination.
But don't worry, you can do it if you take simple steps, and believe that you can do it.
Where to get Help
There is more than one way to lose weight - different things work for different people. You may be able to get help and advice at your local leisure centre or join a commercial slimming club.
If you need advice about what's available in your area, ask at your local GP surgery.
For more information
For your local leisure centre please visit: www.aquaterra.org
Our healthy eating page: Healthy Eating
NHS Choices for information on losing weight: www.nhs.uk/planners/nhshealthcheck/pages/achieveahealthyweight.aspx
For accurate and balanced information about weight loss, look on the website created by registered dieticians at: www.bdaweightwise.com/index.html