Do you know your nutritional status? Probable answer: Yes or No.
If not, please check your status (Reference: A42)
If you were recently diagnosed as obese or overweight then it would be wise to consult with your doctor or dietician or nutritionist to affirm the condition considering distinct aspects such as body mass index (BMI), and distribution of body fat measured by waist circumference, skinfold thickness, etc. (Reference: A42, 43).
In addition, you need to have a clear idea about the differences among the causes and characteristics of normal weight, obesity, and overweight as excess body weight due to body lean mass or fat or water retention are not the same. Otherwise, you will be misguided and classify yourself as malnourished (Overweight, obese). In general, one is marked as obese or overweight when he or she is found too heavy for his or her height (Fact sheets – Malnutrition (who.int)).
Energy Intake=Energy Expenditure (Adequate energy intake or Energy Balanced, Normal weight)
Energy Intake>Energy Expenditure (Excess energy intake or Energy Imbalanced, Overweight or Obesity)
A single measurement like BMI also has different cutoff points such as WHO and Asian standards of BMI (More Than Skin Color: Ethnicity-Specific BMI Cutoffs For Obesity Based on Type 2 Diabetes Risk in England – American College of Cardiology (acc.org)). Even a single measurement of overweight or obesity like BMI may misguide you (AMA: Use of BMI alone is an imperfect clinical measure | American Medical Association (ama-assn.org)).
Personal exposure, primarily environmental, directly influences an individual’s diet and physical activity. Thus, excess intake may cause an overweight or obesity problem. So, to address the problem you may collect data on different things which may include follows:
- Age, weight, and physiological condition.
- Know your Ideal weight (Ideal Weight Calculator (bmi-calculator.net).
- The time when weight is changed majorly.
- Dietary history.
- Liking and disliking of foods-food habits.
- Figure out the recent changes in your dietary intake environments-family, personal or professional settings.
- Recent exposed medical conditions or types of medicine taken (Reference: A42)
- Changes in physical activity.
- Family history (Genetical profile), etc.
These would help you to assess the nutritional status properly by your doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist. As a result, proper advice and counseling could be given. Thus, effective, and efficient motivation and management are possible to control excess body weight gain. You should follow this advice.
In addition, you may motivate yourself with the help of your caregivers to make changes and adopt the following practices yourself by taking the help of standard dietary guidelines such as food MyPlate (MyPlate | U.S. Department of Agriculture).
- Visit less frequently or avoid specific conditions or environment that helps you to eat more.
- Avoid or reduce specific food(s) rich in energy, especially carbohydrates or fat.
- Increase consumption of both fruits-especially less and non-sweet fruits.
- Increase consumption of both vegetables-especially leafy and non-starchy vegetables.
- Increase the consumption of whole grains.
- Decrease the consumption of fats and sugars.
- Increasing physical activity, etc.
If you are interested to learn about the management of weight particularly overweight and obesity, please visit the following links:
Food-based dietary guidelines – Bangladesh (fao.org)
Home | Dietary Guidelines for Americans
Eatwell guide – follow a healthy and balanced diet – BHF
Weight Management | Learn Nutrition Online (learnutritiononline.com)
Assess Your Nutritional Status | Learn Nutrition Online (learnutritiononline.com)
References:
A42: Overweight and Obesity – Symptoms and Diagnosis | NHLBI, NIH
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