Carrying around excess body fat is a health hazard

Saint Paul Pioneer Press

There is our ideal weight. There is overweight. There is obesity and morbid obesity. Science defines ideal weight using the body mass index (BMI). BMI is a relationship between height and weight. Ideal BMI is 22. Overweight begins at BMI 25. Obesity begins at BMI 30 and morbid obesity at BMI 40. BMI readings are the same for men or women. Here are two examples: A person who is 5-foot-6 has an ideal weight of 136 with overweight beginning at 155, obesity beginning at 186 and morbid obesity at 247.

Someone who is 6 feet tall has an ideal weight of 162 with overweight beginning at 184, obesity at 221 and morbid obesity at 294.

There are many Internet sites that automatically calculate BMI if you don't know your BMI. One site is www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi.

Excess fat is a health hazard. It overworks the heart. It makes the overweight person susceptible to diabetes, lower energy levels, heart disease and cancer. The more overweight we are, the less likely we are to have other healthy lifestyle habits like daily exercise and positive eating patterns.

There is no secret to the formula for gaining or losing weight, regardless of the claims and promises in the many fad diet books. If you consume fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. If you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain weight.

If you eat and burn the same number of calories, your body weight will stabilize. There are no healthy reasons to carry excessive fat. There are many compelling reasons to be at our ideal body weight. Quality and quantity of life are the two basic, important ones. In fact, scientific research suggests if we are slightly underweight, through healthy habits, we will likely live longer than the population average. The arguments about accepting people who are fat, or that it is discrimination not to do so, confound the underlying health issues. I do not think fat is something we should wrap our arms around and hug like a friend. Certainly love and accept friends who are overweight.

However, never give up hope that they will somehow find a way to lose their excess pounds for their own sake. Not for anyone else, for themselves! Regardless of the cause of the excessive weight: heredity, environment or a combination of the two it is not good.

Processed foods, long hours at a desk, time spent on the computer, television, pressured lifestyles these and many other factors contribute to improper eating, not enough exercise and sedentary living. It is a challenge to keep our weight at ideal levels.

However, we should never stop trying. There are seductive advertisements for delicious-looking foods that are actually poison to our bodies. Advertisements for comfortable beds, sofas and recliners are all around us. Who doesn't like to and actually need to "take it easy" sometimes? We all do. It is when to take something to excess or neglect what we know we should do that we get into trouble.

"Moderation in all things," a phrase ascribed to many, is good advice. It is hard to follow because many of us have a penchant for doing to excess. Edwin Land, developer of the Polaroid camera, said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess." I'm not sure what his definition of worth was.

There are many fun-in-the-moment activities, which, if taken to extremes, are not good for our long-term health. Perhaps you believe moderation is a synonym for boring. I hope not.