What Exactly is Over Weight?
Weight Loss Help brings you another post on more ways to get on with the task of losing weight both successfully and enjoyably. In this post we look at what exactly is the definition of overweight? Lets look at what we have to measure this term.
No two people are the same and measurements like the hated MI (Body Mass Index) are not very helpful as they don’t take into account an individual’s personal physical makeup, just relying on height vs weight.
Well because we are not all the same, we’re likewise not all built the same. Where one man who is who is 5ft 10in and weighs say 160 pounds may be considered at close to his ideal weight according to his BMI might actually have a large beer gut and be very flabby and unhealthy – whereas another man of the same height and weight who exercises regularly and is nicely toned and has good muscle definition.
Each man is the same weight, so on paper they are the same. But they are not the same and are in fact poles apart!
This lens is here to take these individual peculiarities that differentiate people into account when talking about what is overweight and what is not.
So now we can get a better picture of what we see as overweight and what is not.
A person who is relatively fit and healthy can be several pounds heavier than an unfit, flabby and unhealthy person and yet look much lighter. Why is this?
Simple.
Muscle weighs more than fat. Once you know this simple difference, then you can see why a fit person looks leaner or thinner than an unfit person.
A fit person carries more muscle density and volume making them tip the scales at several pounds more than a person who is unfit that carries more fat. The fat contributes to greater body bulk or volume than muscle so makes a person of similar size to a fit person look a whole lot larger, or fatter.
So what is the simple answer to reversing this?
Exercise and exercise alone is what is needed to tone up a body. Dieting won’t do it, no matter if you starve yourself for a week then revert back to your normal diet. It won’t work because you don’t have the muscle density necessary to burn off any excess fat. This is how it works:
