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Healthy Weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is a crucial part of overall good health. While most people don’t like the way they look when they're carrying excess weight, losing that weight isn’t just about looking better: it's much healthier too. Keeping your weight within the healthy range can lower your risk of heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.

Eating well and being active are important in both achieving and maintaining a healthy weight however with today’s busy way of life it can be challenging to find the time to be active and eat a healthy diet.

Inactivity and poor diet often means that our bodies receive more energy or calories from food than our body needs. These excess calories become stored as fat on our body which overtime leads to weight gain weight and can cause us to become overweight or obese.

Recent figures from 2008 suggest about a third of women, 32%, and 42% of men in England are overweight and these figures are continuing to rise.

What is a healthy weight?

There are a number of ways we can measure our weight however the most commonly used is the body mass index (BMI). BMI is a number or score that gives an indication as to whether or not we are within a healthy weight range for our height.

Calculate your own BMI using the BMI Calculator then use the chart below to check where you fall and on where you can find appropriate advice and local support.

BMI Score	Classification
18.5 or below	Underweight	If you have concerns or would like more advice talk to your GP
18.5 - 24.9	Healthy Weight	It is still important to eat well and to keep active to help maintain a healthy weight.
25 – 29.9	Overweight	Your health may begin to suffer. When it comes to weight, even small improvements can work wonders for your. Go to our tips for getting started for more information.
30 or more	Obese	Your weight is likely to be effecting your health and on average can reduce life expectancy by a whopping nine years. Losing just a small amount of weight can bring about big benefits. Go to getting started for more information including information on local weight loss services available.