As a starting point, decide on a reasonable target weight for you. As a guideline, most slimming and weight loss professionals use the Body Mass Index (BMI), which looks at a person’s weight in relation to their height,. A BMI of less than 18.5 is considered to be underweight, 18.5-24.9 indicates a healthy weight, 25-29.9 is overweight and 30 or more is obese. Quite simply, the higher your BMI, the greater your risk of health problems.
Ideally, you should aim for a target weight that gives you a BMI in the healthy weight range (18.5-24.9), but if you have a considerable amount of weight to lose, this may seem extremely daunting and unachievable. Instead, you might prefer to set an initial weight loss that moves you down a couple of BMI notches, or perhaps shifts you from the obese category (BMI more than 30) to the overweight category (BMI 25-29.9). Research shows that losing just 10 percent of excess weight will improve health – and you can always set yourself new goals along the way.
Ideally, you should aim for a target weight that gives you a BMI in the healthy weight range (18.5-24.9), but if you have a considerable amount of weight to lose, this may seem extremely daunting and unachievable. Instead, you might prefer to set an initial weight loss that moves you down a couple of BMI notches, or perhaps shifts you from the obese category (BMI more than 30) to the overweight category (BMI 25-29.9). Research shows that losing just 10 percent of excess weight will improve health – and you can always set yourself new goals along the way.
