An article from came up in Facebook and struck a cord with me. It’s from glamour.com (click on the picture to read the article) The picture drove readers to write in applauding the showing of a beautiful woman, Lizzie Miller, that didn’t have “perfect, flat abs” and still happy about the way she looked.

Lizzie Miller

There are many health reasons to not want to be overweight and/or obese including increased risk of heart disease and diabetes (to name a few). BUT, what does overweight mean? According to Body Mass Index (BMI), which is essentially a height/weight formula, a rating of less than 18.5=underweight, 18.5-24.9=normal, 25-29.9=overweight, and 30+=obese. Lizzie is 5′11″ and 175lbs which gives her a BMI of 24.4 – still in the normal weight category. So does she need to lose weight? Certainly not from a health prospective. At this point it is purely an aesthetic choice, HER choice.

Too often people, particularly women, tend to judge themselves based on how they look compared to the cover model “ideals” that have bodies that are too difficult and unnecessary to attain for optimal health and happiness.

On the other hand, if you think that the Fox show “More to Love” expresses the healthy “normal woman”, (as the producers would seem to want you to think) you’re mistaken. Most of these women have increased health risk because of their weight.  Melissa

 What’s the answer? What should we be shooting for with our weight? First and foremost we should strive to be healthy, happy, and keep the worries to a minimum. If you’re in healthy ranges and still find yourself obsessing about losing weight, you have to really ask yourself about what it is that you want to accomplish with the additional weight loss and why that is important to you.         

Click here to check your own BMI

*note: BMI is not the be-all, end-all” in healthy weight assessment. Because it only considers height and weight it misses the “is it fat weight or muscle weight” question. Body composition assessments would be a better choice for really knowing if your weight is at a healthy level.

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