Knowing When You Should Gain Weight For Your Health
If you’re overweight and desperately trying to lose weight, you probably don’t have one ounce of sympathy for those people who eat constantly trying to gain weight. It can be just as much of a problem for them, since it’s tough to eat when you’re feeling full and even more difficult to eat healthy to gain weight for your health. Healthy foods aren’t known to put on the pounds. Here are some signs that should alert anyone that is thin that it’s time to gain weight and a few tips on how to do it right.
Your BMI is below 18.5.
BMI is body mass index. It’s a calculation that takes your height and weight into consideration. Age plays a role, too. Once you’re past the age of 40, the older you are, the less muscle mass you probably have. For older adults, assessing the amount of lean muscle mass is more important. For those younger, the BMI is still a good indicator of whether you’re too heavy or too thin. For people in their twenties, having a BMI that indicated the status of being overweight showed an increased risk of mortality. The same was not true of older adults. In fact, the opposite was true. An underweight BMI indicated that. However, there’s no conclusion on whether being underweight increased the risk of mortality or whether an illness that increased the risk of mortality caused the individuals to be underweight.
Signs that may or may not indicate too low of a body weight.
Being skinny might be a sign, but it also might mean the person is at their perfect body weight. People with longer torsos will weigh more than those with longer legs. Arms and hands that look like spider’s webs showing because of the veins can be another sign of being underweight. That too might be deceiving. Just look at those people who are bodybuilders and watch a pose. Every vein in their body seems to be visible. Joints that look too disproportionate for the body may be a sign, but then again, larger boned people or those with larger joints should be eliminated. Signs that should make you worry are irregular menstrual periods, getting sick easily due to a weak immune system, hair loss, dizziness and fatigue or for children, poor growth and inadequate development.
There are things you should do if you’re underweight.
Even though it’s said you can’t have too much money or be too thin, that’s not true…about the thin part, that is. If you’ve been thin all your life, you’ve probably already seen a doctor who noted it and checked for various illnesses. If you’ve recently lost weight and have become underweight, immediately see your physician for a checkup. Illness or serious conditions can cause sudden weight loss. Add more good protein sources, healthy fat and grain to your diet.
- Nut butter can be liberally added to your diet. Slather some onto apple slices or your toast in the morning. It adds calories, healthy fat and protein.
- Top off your omelet with extra cheese and sprinkle extra on healthy soups or salads.
- Keep snacks with you at all times. Munch on some healthy trail mix with seeds, nuts and dried fruit. You can even sprinkle in a few dark chocolate chip for extra calories.
- Drink some of your fruit. Rather than consuming all your fruit whole, turn it into a smoothie or go for pure juice. There’s no fiber to fill you up in the juice.
Do you clean up the dishes after a meal and eat the last bits of the lasagna rather than throw it away or finish your child’s plate rather than letting it go to waste and throw it out. You really need to take a look at what you’re doing to your overall health and how you’re sabotaging your efforts to lose weight. Your stomach isn’t a waste basket and you shouldn’t treat it that way by consuming food rather than trashing it. If you hate waste, don’t throw away the left over food. Store it as a snack for another day or use the leftover in a soup or other dish the next day.
Many clients want to know how often they should weigh themselves. Some mistakenly weigh several times throughout the day. There’s nothing you’ll learn when you do that and it even can create disappointment. Throughout the day your weight will fluctuate, which is why I always tell clients to weight themselves at the same time of day for the best results, but not to weigh more than once in that day. It takes longer than a few hours to see true results.
If you’ve read the recent facts about soda, you may be as outraged as I am with the new commercial from Coke. I was watching one of my favorite programs the other day and as always, there was a commercial break. A young actress came on the screen and said, “Look, here’s the thing about Diet Coke. “It’s delicious. It makes me feel good. Life is short. If you want to live in a yurt, yurt it up. If you want to run in a marathon, I mean, that sounds super hard, but OK. I mean, just do you…” Basically, it was saying we know it’s not healthy, but do it anyway. Ironically, right afterward, a commercial saying the health risks of smoking and how you should quit followed it.
Fitness is all about doing what you need to do and to eat to be your best. It doesn’t matter what the workout or what the diet, as long as it’s healthy and lower in calories. It’s about exercising regularly to build muscle tissue and burn fat, while eating healthy. In other words, getting fit is all about mindset. You have to believe what you’re doing is going to work and follow your plan daily, not just one or two days, one or two weeks or one or two months. Fitness is a long term goal and there’s no short cuts.
How you look and what you do is all governed by the way you see yourself. If you see yourself as a failure, guess what! You’ll live up to your expectations. No matter who you are or what you’re attempting to do, if you don’t believe you can accomplish your goals or don’t think you deserve to accomplish your goals, you simply won’t. That goes for anyone and any type of goal.