Ad. Weight is something that bears on many of our minds. This is a shame, because at the end of the day, we are all different people will different shapes and sizes. No body type is any better than another in day to day terms. However, you may be considering your weight in regards to health and wellbeing. Countless studies have shown that being overweight or underweight can have serious impacts on your overall health and wellbeing, so it’s important that you do your utmost to try to stick to a healthy weight that indicates health and wellbeing. Here are some top tips that can help you to manage your weight in the right way.
The Importance of Managing Your Weight
As we briefly touched on above, your weight can indicate various factors around your health and your wellbeing. Being underweight and being overweight can come hand in hand with health consequneces that are best avoided.
Consequences of Being Underweight
Being underweight can indicate that you’re not providing your body with sufficient fuel, nutrients and energy to get through each day as it should. The consequences of this can include:
- Malnutrition
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Anemia
- Osteoporosis from lack of vitamin D and calcium
- Decreased immune function
- Increased risk for surgery complications
- Fertility issues
- Irregular menstrual cycles
- Growth and development issues
Consequences of Being Overweight
When you are overweight, you are likely providing your body with more fuel than it can use, resulting in your body storing excess fat away. This can result in health issues such as:
- Cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke)
- Type 2 diabetes
- Musculoskeletal disorders
- Some cancers
Consult Your Doctor
If you are concerned about your weight, the first person you should turn to is your doctor. Your doctor is a qualified professional who will be able to make an accurate decision on what weight you should fall between and how much is healthy for you as an individual. We are all different, carry our weight differently and could find that measurements such as BMI, which we will discuss below, are inaccurate, as we have more muscle mass and less fat, skewing readings. Only your doctor can give you a good insight into what you should be aiming for and how to get there. If you aren’t able to attend in person, you can always reach out to a Simple Online Doctor instead.
Set Goals
Work with your doctors to set goals regarding your weight. This could include tips for weight gain or weight loss. Whatever your need, your doctor will be able to advise a healthy weight range that they’d like to see you in and can make recommendations of how much time this journey should take. Nowadays, we are tricked by fad diets into thinking that results can be almost instantaneous, with you gaining or losing weight in a matter of days or weeks. But this isn’t sustainable. Instead, gradual but permanent change is generally the goal. This can slowly ease you into a lifestyle that will contribute to a healthy body weight and that can be more easily maintained going forward.
Invest in Accurate Scales
If you’re going to weigh yourself, you need to make sure that you’re using accurate scales. Way too many people have old sets of scales that don’t give accurate readings or measurements. This means that they don’t have a good idea of how much they actually weigh and this can make tracking progress unreliable and more difficult. Make sure to invest in some quality scales that will give you a good reading. Alternatively, your doctor will have scales that can do the job too.
Avoid Fad Diets
As we briefly touched on above, you should avoid fad diets wherever you can. This is much better for you, your body and your journey. Sure, you may find that fad diets promise fast results, but the results won’t be long lasting and can actually damage your body. Instead, you need to focus on a healthy and balanced diet that will provide your body with the nutrients that it needs in the right quantities. Fad diets are generally unsustainable and only offer temporary results, often due to things like encouraging your body to lose water weight, which comes straight back on when you become rehydrated again.
Avoid Junk Food
One of the simplest and most straightforward way you can guide yourself to a healthy and balanced diet is to avoid junk food wherever possible. As always with any dietary conversation, the main focus should be healthy and balanced in good moderation. Junk food tends to be more convenient and is widely available, making it much more tempting. You don’t have to go food shopping. You don’t have to prep food. You don’t have to cook. Often, you also don’t need to clean up after. But these meals also tend to be nutritional nightmares. They are packed with excess levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat, while also failing to provide your body with many nutrients that will genuinely benefit it. You’ll find a lot of empty calories that simply fill your hunger for a while and don’t serve another purpose. It definitely shouldn’t form a regular part of your meals.
Have Patience
Results take time. This is because you are implementing a lifestyle change and are, likely, combating the results of years of bodily neglect. Reaching a healthy weight can take time, but with persistence and perseverance, you will get there.
Be Kind to Yourself
It’s hard to break habits. If you’re used to eating unhealthily, your body may be used to different amounts of food, different types of food, strong and artificial flavours and addictive ingredients. You’re going to take a while to get used to the new diets you’re following and it’s completely understandable if you make a few mistakes every now and then, or make occasional poor choices. What’s important is that you are eating well most of the time. That you’re trying to make a change. That you’re invested in making change.
As you can see, managing your weight can be complex. But it is important that you tackle this journey in the right way. Hopefully, some of the tips above will help!