Guide To Diets

-AM I OVERWEIGHT?

-What do the terms “overweight” and “obese” mean?-

Physicians usually define “overweight” as a condition in which a person’s
weight is 10-20% higher than “normal”, as defined by a standard
height/weight chart. “Obesity” is usually defined as a condition in which a
person’s weight is 20% or more above normal weight. “Morbid obesity”
variously means 50% to 100% over normal weight, more than 100 pounds over
normal weight, or sufficiently overweight to severely interfere with health
or normal functioning.

-Is using a standard height/weight chart a good way to tell whether I’m
overweight?-

Your weight is only a very rough indicator of the amount of fat that your
body contains, and most physicians feel that the percentage of your weight
that comes from fat tissue is far more important than total body weight
(which includes not only fat but also muscles, bones, and bodily fluids).
Height/weight tables could indicate that a lean, muscular person is
“overweight”, while a person whose weight is within the “normal” range might
actually be carrying around more fatty tissue than is healthy. Covert Bailey
states in The New Fit or Fat that standard weight tables can be off by as
much as 20-30 pounds for any given person.

-I’ve decided to start a weight loss plan. How should I determine what
weight I want to reach?-

Remember that your weight is just a small part of the whole picture. Other,
more valid, indicators of your fitness level are:

* How do you feel–energetic or wiped out?
* Do you have good muscle tone, or are you flabby? *¨ Are you able to walk
up a few flights of stairs without panting?
* Are you able to accomplish the daily tasks that you want/need to do?
If you’ve been overweight since childhood or adolescence, you may not even
know what a “good” weight for you would be. Setting a goal of a normal body
fat percentage (see “Is using body fat percentage a good way to tell whether
I’m overweight?”) or a certain clothing size is probably more realistic than
aiming for a specific weight, but even here you should use your common
sense. Most women would love to wear size 6 (or smaller) clothes, even those
whose large frames make this a totally unrealistic and unhealthy goal for
them.

-How often should I weigh myself?-

As mentioned above, weight is only a rough indicator of fitness. However,
many people engaged in a reducing or fitness plan find it desirable to check
their weight regularly. Opinions on how often one should weigh vary widely.
The natural tendency of a person on a weight loss plan is to weigh
frequently, perhaps several times a day (“I’ve lost a quarter pound since
this morning!”). It’s important to remember, though, that your weight will
increase and decrease throughout the day depending on your activity level,
food and fluid intake, etc. Even your day-to-day weights will fluctuate,
mostly due to varying degrees of fluid retention. (Many women tend to gain a
few pounds during their menstrual periods due to “water weight,” and men and
women both tend to retain extra fluids after ingesting large quantities of
sodium, e.g. Chinese food.) For this reason, many a.s.d members feel that it
is more reasonable to weigh less often, perhaps once a week or once a month,
to obtain a more realistic pattern of weight loss or maintenance. Even this
approach has some drawbacks, though–what if you just happen to be heavy due
to fluid retention on the one day per week or month that you weigh?
If you do decide to weigh yourself regularly (at whatever frequency you
think is most appropriate for your emotional well-being), we recommend that
you: a) Weigh yourself under similar conditions each time. For example, if
you weigh yourself daily, do it at the same time every day, wearing
approximately the same clothes each day, on the same scale. Probably the
best time is in the morning, right after getting up and going to the
bathroom, before eating or drinking anything. b) Look not at specific
numbers but at trends in your weight patterns. If you weigh daily, you might
wish to average your daily weights to obtain one weekly average, which you
can compare to previous weeks. Try plotting your weight on a graph, and look
for a gradual downward inclination, ignoring the occasional sharp peaks and
dips, which are probably due to differing degrees of fluid retention.

Some people have abandoned the scales entirely, preferring to rely on other
indicators, such as:

* How well do your clothes fit? Are they tight or loose through the chest,
thighs, or waist?
* The “pinch test”: Can you “pinch an inch” of fat at your waistline or at
the back of your arm?
* The “jiggle test”: Jump up and down in front of a full-length mirror,
nude. Does anything jiggle that shouldn’t
* Overall muscle tone: When you put your hand on your thigh or hip, do you
feel muscle or fat?

-Is using body fat percentage a good way to tell whether I’m overweight?-

Most physicians consider your body fat percentage to be a far better
indicator of overall fitness than weight. Normal ratios are 12-18% body fat
for men and 19-25% for women; very fit people (e.g., athletes) may have much
lower percentages. Unfortunately, body fat percentage is more difficult to
determine than weight (see below).
-What’s the best way to measure body fat percentage?-
Several methods are in use, and unfortunately the same person is likely to
get different readings from different methods. As with weighing yourself,
your best bet is to pick one method, stick with it, and watch trends rather
than specific numbers.

* Immersion: This method is based on the fact that lean tissue (muscles,
bones, etc.) tends to sink in water, while fat floats. The client is seated
in a chair which hangs from a scale, rather like a scale in a supermarket’s
produce section. The chair and the client are lowered into a pool of water
until the client is completely immersed, and the client’s weight (while
immersed) is recorded. The fatter you are, the more you tend to float, and
the lower your immersed weight will be–muscular people weigh more than fat
people while immersed. The immersion method is highly accurate, but
obviously requires a lot of equipment. Covert Bailey advises that you can
estimate your fat ratio by seeing how well you can float on your back in a
regular swimming pool: above 25% fat, people float easily; people with
22-23% fat (a healthy level for women) can usually float while breathing
shallowly; at 15% fat (low for a woman, healthy for a man), one will usually
sink slowly even with a full chest of air; at 13% or less fat, one will sink
readily even with a full chest of air, even in salty ocean water.

* Calipers: The physician or technician making the measurement gently
pinches up folds of tissue in areas that normally accumulate fat readily
(such as the back of your arm, your stomach just above the waistline, and
your hip area), then uses calipers to measure the width of these folds. The
thicker the folds are, the higher the fat ratio in your body. This method is
only somewhat accurate since it measures just the fat which accumulates in
these regions, not that which is imbedded between muscle fibers. However, it
is a simple and inexpensive procedure. ¨ Electrical impedance: This method
is based on the fact that fat and lean tissues have different levels of
electrical conductivity (muscle  tissue conducts electricity better than fat
tissue does). The test is simple, completely painless, and takes just a few
minutes; a couple of sensors are attached to the body (e.g., to a hand and a
foot) and used to measure the body’s resistance to a weak electrical
current.

* Infrared measurement: This method is based on the fact that an infrared
beam travels faster through muscle than fat. An IR beam is bounced off a
bone (e.g., in the upper arm) and the time that it takes for the signal to
return is measured. As with electrical impedance, the procedure is simple
and completely painless.

-Are there any other ways to find out whether I’m overweight/overfat?-

If you’re overweight you probably already know it, but there are a couple of
indicators that can let you know whether your weight increases your risk for
health problems like heart disease. Waist-to-hip ratio is a useful
indicator, and is simple to determine. Stand in front of a full-length
mirror so that you can easily see the areas you are measuring. Use a tape
measure to measure your waist circumference at the level of your navel.
Next, measure your hip circumference at its widest point. (Do not pull the
tape measure too tightly.) Divide your waist measurement by your hip
measurement to determine your waist-to-hip ratio. For example, if your waist
measures 26″ (66 cm.) and your hip measurement is 36″ (91.5 cm.), your
waist-to-hip ratio is 0.7. For men, a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.95-1.0 or
greater indicates an increased risk for heart disease. Women should have a
ratio of 0.8 or less.

Another useful measurement is your Body Mass Index (BMI). If you have a Web
browser (such as Netscape) which is capable of displaying tables, check out
http://www.loop.com/~bkrentzman/obesity/bmi1.html for a handy BMI chart. To
determine your BMI manually, multiply your weight in pounds by 703, then
divide by the square of your height in inches. For example, if you weigh 130
pounds and are 5′4″ (64″) tall, your BMI is (130 * 703)/(64 * 64) = 22.3.
(If you use the metric system, divide your weight in kilograms by the square
of your height in meters.) A BMI of 25 or less indicates that you are at low
risk for heart disease; 30 or higher suggests that you are at moderate to
very high risk. BMI, like height/weight charts, does not take into account
individual physiques, body fat percentages, etc., but does at least allow
for a range of weights.

-What is cellulite?-

Strictly speaking, there’s no such thing, although vendors of high-priced
creams, special scrubbing sponges, and exercise equipment would like you to
believe otherwise. The term “cellulite” was coined at a European diet spa to
describe the deposits of fat that many women (normal and overweight)
accumulate on their thighs and buttocks. Concentrations of fat in these
areas often have a wrinkled or puckered appearance because the fat bulges
out between the fibers that connect the skin to underlying tissues; the
actual fat itself is no different than that found anywhere else in the body.
Short of surgical measures such as liposuction, there is no way to remove
fat concentrations from one part of the body, although a diet and exercise
program targeted at reducing fat throughout the body may eliminate, or at
least reduce, such localized deposits.

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