With an NHS survey illustrating that 67% of adult men and 61% of adult women in the UK are now classed as overweight or obese, it is apparent that as a nation that we need to do more to help ourselves suffering unnecessarily with often-preventable illnesses, such as cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
As has been recently noted too, lowering your BMI also significantly reduces the effects you may feel if you contract COVID-19, which has a much more detrimental effect on those with raised BMIs.
As we continue to learn to live with the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving and maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI) of under 25 is one of the ways we can reduce risks of suffering from the virus.
One international study testing nearly 400,000 patients published in August found that patients who were overweight or obese contracting COVID-19 were 113% more likely to be hospitalised, 74% more likely to be admitted to intensive care units and, very sadly, 48% more likely to die than those with a healthy BMI.
How is BMI measured?
BMI is simply measured by dividing your weight by your height in metres squared. Once measured, you are then placed into a category of BMI.
In adults, a BMI of 25 to 29.9 puts a person in the overweight category, a BMI of 30 or higher means that a patient is considered to obese and a BMI of 40 or higher means that that patient is morbidly obese.
How do we know if we are overweight or obese, isn’t BMI inaccurate?
The BMI measurement is not always conclusive, as it does not determine the muscle mass of someone, which weighs more than fat in the body, but takes up much less space.
In instances such as this, where the BMI result can prove ambiguous, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) suggests that waist circumference is measured alongside your BMI result, as the smaller your waist, the less likely it is that your BMI is raised due to fat.
So we are able to determine if the BMI is roughly correct, a waist measurement is taken in centimetres and then put into categories as follows:
| Gender | Desirable | High | Very High |
| Men | Less than 94cm | 94-102cm | More than 102cm |
| Women | Less than 80cm | 80-88cm |
More than 88cm |
If you have a raised waist measurement and a higher BMI, it most often points to the fact that you have fat around your vital organs (visceral fat), and therefore you are at an increased risk of obesity-related health problems.
What causes our BMI to be raised?
When it comes to looking at what raises your BMI, the NHS looks at what are known as ‘risk factors’ – things that cause us to gain weight and fat.
These include:
- Poor diet and nutrition
- Sedentary behaviours (lack of exercise)
- Smoking
- Overconsumption of alcohol
- High stress
Most of these should come as no surprise to us as contributing factors for weight gain and raised BMI, but did you know that stress can contribute to your BMI?
In fact, a study has found that having high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, can increase your storage of visceral fat and can also dictate where the fat is stored in our bodies.
This means, that we need to look after our mental health, as well as our physical!
But how important is lowering our BMI? Will it really help reduce health risks?
Simply put, yes, lowering your BMI is very important if you are overweight or obese!
If you are overweight or obese, it causes your immune system to be weaker due to increased cases of low-grade inflammations in your body from carrying more weight. Small aches and pains and other obesity-caused issues are having to be fought off by your immune system.
Whilst your body fights the inflammations, it’s not as able to fight off any other infections or ailments you pick up, such as COVID-19, meaning you’re more likely to suffer from them.
Having increased levels of visceral fat is what causes a lot of health-related issues in overweight and obese patients, and is implicated in a number of well-known chronic health conditions such as blocked arteries, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers and even has links to dementia.
What can we do to lower our BMI?
If you’re in the raised BMI category and your waist circumference is outside of the desirable measurements, how can you look to lower both of them and decrease your chances of health issues now and in the future?
By nourishing yourself with better food, giving up unhealthy behaviours and making your life more active, you can lower your risk factors.
Currently, the UK healthy living guidelines suggest the following:
- Move more and take part in regular activities that raise your heart rate
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet, ensuring you eat 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, limit sugars to 5% of your daily calorie intake and limit your saturated fat to no more than 10% of your daily calories
- Limit alcohol intake to no more than the recommended 14 units per week
- Give up smoking
- Get more sleep
- Reduce stress levels
These all seem pretty reasonable, right?
But knowing where to begin with changing to a healthier lifestyle to reduce your BMI can be worrying and often hard.
That’s where The Slimming Clinic can help. We have been successfully supporting patients on their weight loss journeys for over 34 years now and have thousands of success stories to our name.
With our unique mixture of weight loss doctors and experts as well as supportive weight loss medications, we work with you to build a weight loss programme that works and is effective for you.
We know that by losing just 5% of your current body weight, you can significantly improve your health and reduce the risk of developing and suffering from obesity-related illnesses.
We have adapted our business to a remote-only model, meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic, no matter your level of local lockdown restrictions, we can still treat you. You will still get the same fantastic remote service with your weight loss doctor, as well as your treatments delivered to your door by our secure courier.
This ensures you are able to stay on track with your weight loss, no matter what. Where other weight loss groups and clinics are closing, we are still here, just for you.
With each appointment with us, you will gain more knowledge and tools to ensure you not only lose weight, but keep it off for good this time.
Find out how we can and will improve your BMI and long-term health prospects.
