The list of health risks that are associated with being overweight or having obesity is a long one and includes serious conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and liver disease. If you’re carrying extra weight and you want to know whether you can still be healthy despite the extra load, the answer is complex, and largely not in favor of good health.
At Lafferty Family Care, Dr. Scott Lafferty and our team understand the potential health implications of being overweight or having obesity, which is why we offer weight-loss services.
In this month’s blog post, we’re going to tackle a question that patients often ask — can I be overweight and still be healthy?
The frontline tool for determining whether you’re overweight or have obesity is your body mass index (BMI), which is an estimation of your body fat that’s calculated using your height and weight.
If the results of your BMI calculation are between 25 and 29.9, you’re classified as overweight, and a number over 30 is considered obesity.
While your BMI calculation is a great starting point, it does have some shortcomings, such as not taking into account muscle or bone mass. We’ve seen people who have a BMI of 25, 26, or 27, but larger bones or muscle mass may account for some of the higher number.
As well, a BMI calculation doesn’t consider fat distribution. Medical experts agree that carrying extra fat around your waistline is more potentially dangerous than other areas. So, if you have a BMI that falls into the overweight range, but you’re not carrying a lot of fat around your belly, your weight risks may be lower.
Please note that we’re discussing some fine lines between a normal weight BMI and one that falls into overweight. When it comes to numbers that fall into obesity and severe obesity ranges, the lines are much stronger and your health risks much higher.
Another point to consider is that being overweight can increase your risks for health problems, but it doesn’t mean that you will develop them.
Still, it’s worth understanding these risks. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the risks that are connected to being overweight or having obesity include:
As you can see, the conditions in this list are serious ones you’d hope to avoid.
That said, while weight can play a meaningful role in whether you develop these diseases, so can genetics and lifestyle.
Our point here is that you can be well within normal health ranges, but a family history of certain diseases can still make you susceptible. By the same token, perhaps you’re overweight, but you lead a healthy lifestyle, including a good diet and ample exercise. In some cases, these healthy habits can overcome the risks of the added weight.
If there’s one takeaway here, it’s that it’s impossible to answer the question about whether you can be healthy and overweight at the same time.
We believe that any factor that increases your risks for poor health is a factor that should be resolved. In some cases, there’s nothing we can do about certain risk factors, such as age or genetics, but weight is one area that is well within your ability to change.
If you’d like to take charge of your health through weight loss, please contact our office in Bentonville, Arkansas, to learn more about our personalized weight-loss services.
