By Scott Edwards

Our BMI, or Body Mass Index is an indication of whether we are overweight or not. Our reading should come in somewhere in the region of top teens to mid-twenties. We have weight management problems if our figure is any higher than that. A BMI of more than 30 is considered obese. It becomes morbidly obese when the index goes over 40.

To work out your own index - Use a metric rule to measure your height. Then record your weight in kilograms. Your height should be multiplied by itself, then divide that figure by your weight.

To illustrate: you are 1.65m in height, so take 1.65 x 1.65 and you get 2.72. You weigh 82 kilos, so it's 82 / 2.72 which is 30.15. The above illustration plainly shows that with those stats you would be designated obese.

Generally, a reduction in the amount of high fat food will get the weight-loss ball rolling. Smaller, higher fibre lower fat meals will help the body to metabolise the fat stores that have previously built up.

You should avoid crash diets which usually end up with you either feeling ill or giving up in desperation. Crash diets are those that limit your intake to below a thousand calories for women and fifteen hundred calories for men. Programs like this tend to have a yo-yo effect on weight - it comes off quickly, then goes straight back on again when you inevitably stop.

Long-term weight reduction takes time. But if you just knocked 500 cals off your current daily intake, the results would start to show over time. So not the un-realistic promises fed to you from the instant remedy brigade, but a real solution to help you stay out of the danger zones.

Fat-laden food tends to contain the highest calories. So the easiest way to drop the calories is by cutting out fatty food. Instead, eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, and increase the amount of whole grains in your diet. You'll soon start to notice the health benefits associated with this change.

It may seem like a good idea to skip a meal, but it isn't. Over the day as a whole, you're likely to consume more in snacks to compensate for your hunger. On the contrary, you should eat several small meals a day to prevent getting too hungry. On-going hunger essentially slows the weight loss process down. Regular, healthy eating allows your body to metabolise more efficiently, which makes weight loss much easier.

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