How Can You Tell If You Need To Lose Weight?

Jan 10, 2012 by admin

With recent figures stating that up to 30% of adults in the western world are overweight you might have thought about it and wanted to know how can you tell if you’re obese.

The fact is that people don’t always have a realistic viewpoint or outlook on their own physique. Some people are blind to being overweight and some have the opposite problem. They think they’re overweight when in fact they are perfectly well within normal and healthy weight limits.

One of the early warning signs is that you yourself think that you’re obese. Much like I did, I didn’t pay a huge amount of attention. I knew I wasn’t as fit as I was when I was a teenager, but then, who is? I looked in a mirror one day and thought ‘OMG is that me?’ If you think you might be in need of losing weight then your first stop should be some scales.

Weight yourself and then measure your height, but you probably know that already and then work out your BMI. Body Mass Index is an excellent way to tell if you are within safe/healthy guidelines. And I stress that they are guidelines. Everyone is different, but let’s not fool ourselves. Unhealthy is unhealthy.

The second way you’ll know is if people start telling you. It could be anyone. You go to the doctor for a check-up. He weighs you and tell you that you should lose some weight. He’s not doing that for his own health. And apart from a medical professional there could be other people.

Family members. Friends. Passers-by (I know that sounds ridiculous but people often feel the need to comment on the weight of strangers). Most people will be mentioning it because they feel that you should know and should lose weight. Saying it more than once however may be insensitive.

How do your clothes feel on you? Can you fit into the same pair of jeans you could a year ago. Yup. Some of us keep jeans for more than a year J

If you find that you must buy new clothing in a bigger size, it’s probably time to lose some weight.

How are your fitness levels? Unless you work-out a lot or play a lot of sports, you may not be as fit as a fiddle, especially if you have a sedentary type of job, but walking up a couple of flights of stairs shouldn’t tire you out totally. If simple things cause you to be short of breath it might be an indication that you’re overweight.

If you experience any of the things above, I urge you to compare your weight to that of an average person or a BMI chart and if you’re above average, do something about it.