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Healthy Weight

Being overweight increases your risk of developing high blood pressure. In fact, blood pressure rises as body weight increases. Losing even 10 pounds can lower blood pressure — and it has the greatest effect for those who are overweight and already have hypertension.

Being overweight or obese are also risk factors for heart disease. They increase your chance for developing high blood cholesterol and diabetes — two more major risk factors for heart disease.

Two key measures are used to determine if someone is overweight. These are the body mass index, or BMI, and waist circumference.

BMI relates weight to height. It gives an approximation of total body fat — and that's what increases the risk of obesity-related diseases. Overweight is defined as a BMI of 25 to 29.9; obesity is defined as a BMI equal to or more than 30.

But BMI may overestimate body fat or inaccurately estimate total body fat in muscular persons or those losing muscle. For example, older persons often have lost muscle mass and, so, have more fat for a given BMI than younger persons do. That's why waist measurement is often checked as well. Another reason is that too much body fat in the stomach area also increases disease risk. A waist measurement of more than 35 inches in women and more than 40 inches in men is considered high.

Healthy Weight

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Guide to Behavioral Change