Lots of visitors to my website have commented on my article relating to the question: Am I Overweight? For this article I did some research relating to the current trends and opinions on measuring healthy weight using the healthy weight chart.
The healthy weight chart is a fairly crude formula that takes into account many general factors relating to the overall body shape of a person.
The healthy weight chart sometimes referred to as the height weight chart can be very confusing to some people.
These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.
If you are not familiar with these charts you may well have seen one pinned to your doctor's wall in his surgery, but this method of calculating healthy body mass is not without its critics.
The problem is that some people especially those who are taller than the average person, can be given a false sense of security when using the height weight chart as a measure of healthy weight.
All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a healthy weight range.
The healthy weight range system was established by collecting data from the population as a whole.
For most people the height weight chart gives quite an accurate indication of where you are within the band of the healthy weight range.
Because of the generalised nature of these tools you should always look at other factors besides the height weight chart to be confident in the accuracy of your result.
Caution, there are cases where the results have been incorrect for example:
We found that a taller than average man who was considered to be in the healthy weight range had developed some liver function problems.
If you are tall but carry excessive weight around your abdominal region you should seek medical advice as you may be at increased risk of disease.
Men with an abdominal circumference of above 40 inches who are over 6 feet tall could be mislead as they may be considered in the overweight but not at risk category according to their BMI using the healthy weight chart.
Conclusion: Many practitioners are now moving towards the use of body fat percentage as a safer and more reliable method of calculating health risks relating to being overweight.
The healthy weight chart is a fairly crude formula that takes into account many general factors relating to the overall body shape of a person.
The healthy weight chart sometimes referred to as the height weight chart can be very confusing to some people.
These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.
If you are not familiar with these charts you may well have seen one pinned to your doctor's wall in his surgery, but this method of calculating healthy body mass is not without its critics.
The problem is that some people especially those who are taller than the average person, can be given a false sense of security when using the height weight chart as a measure of healthy weight.
All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a healthy weight range.
The healthy weight range system was established by collecting data from the population as a whole.
For most people the height weight chart gives quite an accurate indication of where you are within the band of the healthy weight range.
Because of the generalised nature of these tools you should always look at other factors besides the height weight chart to be confident in the accuracy of your result.
Caution, there are cases where the results have been incorrect for example:
We found that a taller than average man who was considered to be in the healthy weight range had developed some liver function problems.
If you are tall but carry excessive weight around your abdominal region you should seek medical advice as you may be at increased risk of disease.
Men with an abdominal circumference of above 40 inches who are over 6 feet tall could be mislead as they may be considered in the overweight but not at risk category according to their BMI using the healthy weight chart.
Conclusion: Many practitioners are now moving towards the use of body fat percentage as a safer and more reliable method of calculating health risks relating to being overweight.
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