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Body weight is an important contributor to good health at all life stages.
Managing body weight requires a healthy balance between:
- Energy input (our food and drink).
- Energy output (our exercise and activity).
Some simple measurements provide the feedback we need. The best way to know that you have the balance right, is to:
- Measure - weigh and measure yourself (and your children) regularly.
- Monitor - keep a record of these weights and measurements, so you can detect trends as early as possible.
Other advantages
Other reasons to regularly measure and monitor include:
- Planning for change - know your starting point.
- Setting realistic goals - review past efforts and the results these achieved.
- Monitor progress towards goals - regularly take and compare key measurements (weight, waist circumference and, for growing children, height).
How to monitor - keep a diary
Keeping a diary of your weights and measurements allows you to:
- See trends early - especially important for growing children and teenagers.
- Evaluate past efforts at weight control - identify what has worked best for you.
- Detect when old methods of weight control are no longer working (as can happen with age and metabolism changes.)
Simple measurements important feedback
Waist circumference
Fat that is stored around the organs in the abdomen (belly) is particularly associated with health problems.
By measuring your waist circumference regularly, you can tell if abdominal fat is decreasing or increasing.
Exercise helps to decrease fat storage in the abdomen. With regular exercise your waist measurement may get smaller, even though you may not be losing weight. This is a healthy sign.
Measuring body fat indirectly
Currently, the easiest and quickest tool to do this is the body mass index or BMI. BMI gives a useful guide to individuals as to how much body fat they are likely to be carrying.
You can find out your BMI number on this site:
BMI is used in the steadygrow program as a tool:
- To help parents prevent overweight and obesity in children and teenagers.
- To help parents with an overweight or obese child or teen to stabilise their weight for as long as they need to 'grow into it'.
Weight - adults and older teenagers
Regular weighing seems to be important in successful weight loss and maintenance.
By recording and charting your weight you will pick up trends that may not be evident otherwise. Once you see a clear trend that you have gained as little as one to two kilograms, it is worth taking action to reduce energy input or increase output.
Guidelines for taking accurate weight measurements:
- Use a set of good quality scales.
- Weigh yourself at around the same time each day (eg, before breakfast in the morning), and in the same type of clothing.
Weight - children
We recommend that children be weighed regularly, with as little fuss as possible.
Children need an emphasis on physical activity and healthy eating, rather than weight.
As a parent or caregiver, however, you need to know what your child weighs, and whether their weight is healthy for their height. When charted over time, this measurement provides assurance that your healthy lifestyle endeavours are working for your child, or shows you there's a need for change.
The younger your child, the more important it is that their measurements be taken by a health professional as there is less room for error.
- Children under two should be measured by their health professional.
- Children aged two to four years should have at least some weight measurements done by their health professional.
Height - children
Children under about two years of age should be measured lying down. This can be difficult, requires specific equipment and at least two people to do the job correctly.
Children who are over about two years of age and can stand co-operatively, can have standing height measured. This is most accurately done using a measuring device called a stadiometer.
Children should have a formal height measurement taken at least once a year.
Measuring body fat directly
Body fat callipers are used in some research into nutrition in children, but are not recommended at this stage for individual fat measurement.
Callipers are also commonly used as a measure of fat in health assessments in adults, particularly for physical fitness assessments.
Special machines that accurately measure body fat are being developed but these remain only accessible for research purposes at present.
Other body fat measuring devices coming on to the market are not yet widely accepted as reliable for the purposes of weight control.
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