If you’re considered one of the one in three Australians whose New Year’s resolution involved shedding pounds, it’s likely you’re now contemplating what weight-loss goal you need to actually be working towards.
But type “setting a weight reduction goal” into any online search engine and also you’ll likely be left with more questions than answers.
Sure, the numerous weight-loss apps and calculators available will make setting this goal seem easy. They’ll typically use a body mass index (BMI) calculator to verify a “healthy” weight and supply a goal weight based on this range.
Your screen will fill with trim-looking influencers touting diets that can aid you drop ten kilos in a month, or ads for diets, pills and exercise regimens promising to aid you effortlessly and rapidly drop extra pounds.
Most sales pitches will suggest it is advisable lose substantial amounts of weight to be healthy – making weight reduction seem an unattainable task. But the research shows you don’t must lose a whole lot of weight to attain health advantages.
Read more:
Can you be obese and healthy?
Using BMI to define our goal weight is flawed
We’re a society fixated on numbers. So it’s no surprise we use measurements and equations to attain our weight. The hottest is BMI, a measure of our body weight-to-height ratio.
BMI classifies bodies as underweight, normal (healthy) weight, obese or obese and could be a useful gizmo for weight and health screening.
But it shouldn’t be used as the only measure of what it means to be a healthy weight after we set our weight-loss goals. This is since it:
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fails to contemplate two critical aspects related to body weight and health – body fat percentage and distribution
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doesn’t account for significant differences in body composition based on gender, ethnicity and age.
How does shedding pounds profit our health?
Losing just 5–10% of our body weight – between 6 and 12kg for somebody weighing 120kg – can significantly improve our health in 4 key ways.
1. Reducing cholesterol
Obesity increases the probabilities of getting an excessive amount of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol – also referred to as bad cholesterol – because carrying extra weight changes how our bodies produce and manage lipoproteins and triglycerides, one other fat molecule we use for energy.
Having an excessive amount of bad cholesterol and high triglyceride levels shouldn’t be good, narrowing our arteries and limiting blood flow, which increases the chance of heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
But research shows improvements in total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels are evident with just 5% weight reduction.
2. Lowering blood pressure
Our blood pressure is taken into account high if it reads greater than 140/90 on at the least two occasions.
Excess weight is linked to hypertension in several waysincluding changing how our sympathetic nervous system, blood vessels and hormones regulate our blood pressure.
Essentially, hypertension makes our heart and blood vessels work harder and fewer efficiently, damaging our arteries over time and increasing our risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
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Like the improvements in cholesterol, a 5% weight reduction improves each systolic blood pressure (the primary number within the reading) and diastolic blood pressure (the second number).
A meta-analysis of 25 trials on the influence of weight reduction on blood pressure also found every kilo of weight reduction improved blood pressure by one point.
3. Reducing risk for type 2 diabetes
Excess body weight is the first manageable risk factor for type 2 diabetes, particularly for people carrying a whole lot of visceral fat across the abdomen (belly fat).
Carrying this extra weight may cause fat cells to release pro-inflammatory chemicals that disrupt how our bodies regulate and use the insulin produced by our pancreas, resulting in high blood sugar levels.
Read more:
Can I actually goal areas to lose fat, like my belly?
Type 2 diabetes can result in serious medical conditions if it’s not rigorously managed, including damaging our heart, blood vessels, major organs, eyes and nervous system.
Research shows just 7% weight reduction reduces risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58%.
4. Reducing joint pain and the chance of osteoarthritis
Carrying extra weight may cause our joints to turn into inflamed and damaged, making us more susceptible to osteoarthritis.
Observational studies show being obese doubles an individual’s risk of developing osteoarthritis, while obesity increases the chance fourfold.
Small amounts of weight reduction alleviate this stress on our joints. In one study each kilogram of weight reduction resulted in a fourfold decrease within the load exerted on the knee in each step taken during every day activities.
Shutterstock/Rostislav_Sedlacek
Focus on long-term habits
If you’ve ever tried to drop extra pounds but found the kilos return almost as quickly as they left, you’re not alone.
An evaluation of 29 long-term weight-loss studies found participants regained greater than half of the burden lost inside two years. Within five years, they regained greater than 80%.
When we drop extra pounds, we take our body out of its comfort zone and trigger its survival response. It then counteracts weight reduction, triggering several physiological responses to defend our body weight and “survive” starvation.
Read more:
What’s the ‘weight set point’, and why does it make it so hard to maintain weight off?
Just as the issue is evolutionary, the answer is evolutionary too. Successfully shedding pounds long-term comes all the way down to:
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shedding pounds in small manageable chunks you possibly can sustain, specifically periods of weight reduction, followed by periods of weight maintenance, and so forth, until you achieve your goal weight
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making gradual changes to your lifestyle to make sure you form habits that last a lifetime.
Setting a goal to achieve a healthy weight can feel daunting. But it doesn’t must be a pre-defined weight in response to a “healthy” BMI range. Losing 5–10% of our body weight will lead to immediate health advantages.
At the Boden Group, Charles Perkins Centre, we’re studying the science of obesity and running clinical trials for weight reduction. You can register here to specific your interest.