Are you not happy with your BMI?
Let us recap. A good BMI is between 18.5 to less than 25. To be underweight means having a BMI less than 18.5. To be in the overweight category, your BMI lies between 25.0 to 30. Higher than 30, you are considered to be obese.
Let us check your BMI. Are you happy with it?
Click here to calculate your BMI
What does it feel to be obese?
Today we will discuss high BMI or obesity. Most people do not like to be called obese. Obesity is not a pleasant word to their ears. Obesity is linked to lethargy, overeating, huge appetites, suppressed satiety, and over-sensitivity if declined food.
Obesity leads to negative emotions, distress, anger, fear, causes low self-esteem, and creates a lack of self-confidence.
Signs of low self esteem
Being unhappy tends to spread around and it is reflected by relationships with others. The obese person often tends to keep to himself and is unfriendly to others around him. He has a self-imposed shield to protect himself from being ridiculed due to his physical attribute.
Being alone leads to poor dietary habits, sedentary behavior, negative mood swings, and pessimistic attitudes.
Challenges to the Obese
For the obese to take action, he/ she must first accept the fact that he/she is obese. Self-denial and attributing obesity to external factors such as genetics and heredity is a likely barrier to weight loss. Once the obese individual realizes the implications and health risks due to obesity, then only public health initiatives can succeed.
It is very challenging to lose a big chunk of your weight. More often than not, people tend to give up and revert to their original situation or gain more weight afterward.
There are many organizations advising and offering lifestyle and diet changes. However, maintaining a good and healthy lifestyle requires strong willpower and lots of self-motivation. Studies show that even with professional help, 85% of individuals regained weight or exceeded pre-treatment weight 3-5 years post-treatment.
Why do we let these professionals get rich while we do not benefit from their assistance?
Let’s get out of our comfort zone
If you want to live longer and enjoy a better quality of life, you have to make sacrifices. Get out of your comfort zone. You must take control of your life; and your health.
- Drop all your poor dietary habits now. Today. No more smoking, nor excessive alcohol use.
- Get up from your couch. No more watching ‘Netflix’, playing computer games, and interacting with social media.
- Change your unhealthy diet.
- Get out of your house and see your neighborhood. Take gentle walks before you progress to brisk walks.
- If need be, if you already have underlying health issues like diabetes, hypertension, or heart disease; seek your physician’s advice before you start your exercise regime.
- Also, seek professional help from personal health trainers to customize your exercise regime.
- Improve your health literacy, subscribe to health journals and set goals to reduce your BMI.
- Seek the company of people with similar goals.
The onus is on each of us to make society a healthy one. Let us all work to build a healthy and caring society.
Click the links below if you need help to reduce your BMI:
A Natural Blood Pressure Program
Note:
When you buy through the links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions.
I found your article on BMI very helpful with details about obesity. You are right not many feel comfortable with that word but we need to look at reasons why they may be obese. Some might have underlying conditions that need to be addressed first to obesity besides not getting off the couch. There are some who are very active and still in that obese category. Your article is good for the ones that are flatly just sitting on the couch and being depressed to feel the comfort they may eat foods with lots of carbs that are unhealthy.
Thank you for your kind comments, Jannette.
Being obese does not only lead to feelings of low self-esteem and lack of confidence, often the string of diseases creeps in. Thus, as you grow older it is very important not to be obese. One often needs the support to get out of the ‘couch’.
I think in some cases this is relevant but in some not so much. I think a bit of consideration towards people who are overweight due to medical reasons or even the people who have mental health issues and struggle with more than their weight, these people might not be able to just get up of the couch.
Hi Jess,
I agree with you some people are bed-bound and already suffering. There are also people whose problems are more than how much they weigh. These people need love and support from their friends and families. Somebody can take care of their diet and activities if any. But they are not the majority of the population.
Thanks for sharing the information on BMI. I was never sure what the numbers meant. So I used the calculator and found I was 23.31.
I agree that it is hard to lose weight if you are obese. However, I love your saying that the onus is on us to make society healthy. Those are powerful words.
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for your comments.
BMI is used as a rough guide to indicate a person’s size. Your BMI is just nice and normal.
Obesity is a world problem as obese people are often plagued with many health and mental issues. The health fraternity spends billions of dollars to treat ailments that could be prevented if people take care of their health and control their weight.
Hi Annhariz,
I went through your article and found your advise so interesting – For example, many men prefer to have a required BMI according to their weight and high. But, the issue is that we are just so lazy to practice the tips and be in a good shape. That’s a big problem.
Thank you.
Hi Aubin,
Having the right BMI makes one feel confident and ready for more challenges in life. But as in 2017, the life expectancy of men was 76.1 years, while that of women was 81.1 years. According to the US Census Bureau predictions, women are projected to reach 87.3 years by 2060, compared to 83.9 years for men.
Why do women live longer? They are more in touch with their bodies and will forgo steak and fries to stay healthy. They will also seek the doctor’s advice when feeling ill. While men are not as sensitive and often men’s habits and behavior are in conflict with a healthy lifestyle.
Hi Annahriz,
Thank you for sharing this helpful post.
Thank God my BMI is fine, but I can imagine what overweight people endure. The problem with this generation is that more and more people spend a lot of time in front of their computers or TV and don’t move enough. We need more people like you to inspire overweight change their eating habits and get out of their couch.
Is there a diet you would suggest for fat people? A diet that is not too hard, like the Keto diet. What do you think? Wouldn’t it be easier for them? Counting calories can be very destructive mentally.
Thank you for this excellent post.
Hi Daniella,
Thank you so much for your kind comments.
You must have a lot of empathy for overweight/obese people. True, the world is not an ideal one.
For starters, before keto became popular but troublesome for some; I followed a simple plan. It may not be scientific but it helped to reduce and maintain my weight.
1. First, you have to eliminate fats, oils, sugar,salt and carbohydrates in your diet. That means to boil, steam, broil, and not fry. You may want to add more spices and herbs to replace salt, sugar, and artificial flavors like monosodium glutamate.
2. Train your taste buds by reducing salt and sugar in all food and drinks. No soda drinks and no ready to make 3 in 1 coffee or tea.
3. Reduce your food portions. If you eat 6 slices of bread, reduce it to 4, then 2 slices per meal. If you eat rice, reduce the portion from 1 plateful to half, then a quarter. I also go for smaller portions of chicken or meat.
4. Go for more portions of vegetables and fruits.
5. Eat slowly and stop before you are really full as you do not want to extend your tummy.
I hope you find the above tips useful.
Thanks for sharing with us all this very interesting and intriguing article with us all here. I have to admit that having have always been very lucky enough to have avery slim and fit figure. I think this dues to high metabolism but i could eat crream cakes all day and not put on a singe ounce of weight.
But this article points out some great tips that not only help with weight loss but also work good for your mentsl hrslth.
Thanks again
Karalyne
Hi Karalyne,
Thank you for your comments.
I envy you for your naturally endowed high metabolism. Most people are not so lucky.
They have to work hard to maintain an optimum weight by watching their diet and being active.
However, as we grow older. our rate of metabolism may slow down and then the weights keep on piling. Some athletes when they retire start to gain weight because they continue to eat as much as before without the complementary exercise.