Are you a healthy weight?

A healthy weight is a weight that helps you get the most out of life. It’s a weight at which you can have a better quality of life.

If you’re a healthy weight, you are more likely to live longer, and less likely to die at a younger age from heart disease, type 2 diabetes or some cancers.¹

A healthy weight differs for different people. If you’re tall, you can be healthy at a heavier weight than if you’re short. For instance, if you’re a 1.8 metre tall adult, a healthy weight for you is generally between 60 and 80 kilograms. If you’re 1.5 metres tall, a healthy weight for you is generally between 42 and 56 kilograms.

If your clothes are feeling tight or if you’re running out of energy and feeling below your best, it’s worth thinking about whether you’ve put on weight.

One way of knowing if you’re a healthy weight is to weigh yourself and work out your body mass index (BMI). It’s easy to use the BMI calculator. You can also determine whether you could be at risk of obesity-related chronic diseases by measuring your waist circumference.

It’s worth checking whether you are a healthy weight. Many of us have slightly distorted perceptions about our weight; often we compare ourselves with others and think ‘That’s where I fit in’.

These days the difficulty is that the average Australian is overweight. You might compare yourself with others and see yourself as average, but you could actually be overweight. Then there are some people who incorrectly perceive themselves as overweight when they are in fact underweight.

Whether you use the BMI calculator to find out your BMI or measure your waist circumference to check your chronic disease risk, the most important thing is to think about whether you could be a healthier weight. If you think you could then the Healthy Weight Guide may help you get there. If you’re already a healthy weight, then the Healthy Weight Guide may help you maintain it.

So please, check your BMI and/or your waist circumference.

If you don’t think you’re ready just yet, find out about planning for change.

[1] National Health and Medical Research Council (2013). Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, Adolescents and Children in Australia. Melbourne: NHMRC.

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