“You know, my neighbour, he is, like, stick-thin and he just went through a coronary bypass!” Heard that before, or know someone who’s far from overweight, and yet stuck with one or the other of those “obesity-related diseases”? It’s no surprise if you do.
Though many of us jump on the weight-loss bandwagon to “fix” a bad knee or back, blood pressure problems, diabetes and so on, these problems are not exclusive to overweight people. Those within the “healthy body weight or BMI” range get them too. In fact, body weight is no indicator of fitness, health or wellness. If at all there is an accurate marker of all three, it is your body fat, and not your body weight.
If your last “successful” diet or exercise plan made you lighter on the scales and wallet but heavier on circulating body fat and poorer on lean body weight, you have only walked a step closer to heart disease and a host of other “obesity-related” ailments. If your goal was to get healthier, and not to just lose weight because you have a wedding to attend, or because you are crossing 40, you need to get on to a sensible fat loss plan.
The question is: How do we know that we are lowering our body fat levels and not just our body weight, when we drop kilos? I could write a book on that (in fact, I have) but here are some telltale signs that you have dropped fat, not just weight:
- Your nails will grow faster than ever.
- Your hair looks lustrous.
- You are able to lift and move things around effortlessly.
- You wake up hungry in the morning, and generally feel more in tune with hunger signals than before.
- You no longer feel tired/ bored about going to the gym or for a morning run.
More next time.
(A new fortnightly column on nutrition and fitness, by the best-selling author of Don’t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight)
