How's Your Body-Mass Index?

I stepped on my scales the other day so that I might weigh my 4 dogs. Of course, this required first measuring my own weight, then picking up the dogs one by one in order to calculate their individual weights. Although I preach a pretty hot sermon of diet and fitness, the first clue that there might be some surprises in store was that the battery in the scales was exhausted. Hmmm...I guess it had been a while since I last weighed in. Actually, I already suspected a weight gain. At my last doctor's appointment I had tried to avert my eyes from the numbers on the office scale, yet I thought maybe I had seen 190. How could that be? I had wondered. All this mileage and I've cut back on the ice cream. Really!

I've aspired for the past several years to pare my weight down to 165. Friends have protested that I don't need to lose weight, at least not 25 pounds, but then I stumbled upon a picture of me in my late-teens, hiking in Big Bend. That's when I was working hard labor as a lineman's helper (a grunt) with Central Power and Light in Victoria, Texas. I know, I know! That was then and now is now. Metabolisms change. The body slows down. It happens. We gain weight. I don't pretend to know the details of all this, but my own experience that we tend to gain weight with age is supported by anecdotal evidence. Even worse is that once the weight is gained it is doubly hard to lose it.

I've resisted seriously counting calories, but the time may have arrived if I am to achieve weight loss goals. But first there is the critical step of determining exactly what my weight should be. I am doubting I will ever get down to the lithe 160 or 165 I weighed in that 40-something years old picture of myself hiking the Lost Mine Peak Trail. A 15 pound loss of weight might be enough. Does this sound familiar to you? Then the following might prove helpful to you.

I just read a short item in the current Consumer Reports that reminds me there are more ways of measuring healthy versus overweight versus obese than just the measure reported by our scales. One important measure is body-mass index (BMI). According to the article, to figure your BMI follow this calculation: weight (lbs.) divided by your height in inches squared, them multiplied by 703. Confused? Go here for an online calculator. The return on your calculation will tell you whether your weight is good, bad, or dangerous. The healthy range is 18.5 to 24.9. Higher than 25 is overweight. Beyond 30 is considered obese.