My Food Plan, continued from Part 2 :
As a guide in helping choose appropriate foods for the diabetic food list for a dietary plan, it helps to know where you fit into the general weight range of human beings, whether underweight or overweight or just right.
An index has been devised called the Body Mass Index (BMI for short) that is used by doctors to measure the amount of a person’s body fat based on their height and weight and is considered a reliable indicator of fatness for most grown Caucasian adult people. The BMI value is a useful tool used to assess the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, or other health problems that result from excess abdominal fat.
It is simple to determine your BMI value by consulting this BMI Chart. Your target is to be between 18.5 and 24.9 that is considered to be in the healthy range. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is classified as overweight, and a BMI of 30 or more is classified as obese.
Measurement of Waist Circumference (WC)
At the same time it is also usual to measure waist circumference, because additional health risks can exist if excess fat is located mainly around the waist rather than, say, on hips and thighs, although any excess weight is not good. In general, higher health risks exist for people of average height if their waist circumference is more than 40 inches for men or 35 inches for women.
To measure your waist circumference, use a tape measure placed around your bare abdomen just above the top of your hip-bone, roughly in line with or just above your navel (also called the belly-button), pull it tight but not too tight, don’t compress the skin. Keep it level to the floor, breath out and relax, now measure your waist.
There are other body measurement systems that can also be used to help determine possible health risks, these include Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR), Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Body Fat & Surface Area, Willoughby Ideal Weight & Waist, and Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR). The latter system, involving waist and hip measurement ratios, is claimed to be more accurate in predicting high risk instances when used for older people, perhaps more so than either the BMI values or the WC values.
Whatever system used that enables your health care adviser to assess your physical condition and identify potential risk factors is of benefit to you. And by using the simple formulas for the systems mentioned above, any individual can determine for themselves their status. A good start would be to go now to the BMI chart and find your values and whether it puts you into the healthy weight category, you can do so here: BMI Chart.
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