Healthy bodies come in every shape, size and ability. You may be worrying needlessly. Speak with us if you are concerned that your weight is affecting your health. For specific support, call 8-1-1 to speak with a registered dietitian or qualified exercise professional.
Getting to—and staying at—a healthy weight is never easy. While good actions like healthy eating and regular exercise are the key, your thoughts play a big role in your success.
The power of positive thinking – and actions
Charge is even hard if you constantly tell yourself negative things like “Why bother?” or “This is just how I am”. Try to shift your thinking to positives.
- Every step counts towards your goal. Don’t try to run every day, just run TODAY.
- Remind yourself of challenges you overcame in the past. You can do it again.
- Celebrate the effort you’re putting in with healthy rewards that keep you active and away from temptations.
- Tell a friend about your quest; ask them to help you with accountability.
- Mistakes, skipped days, or small treats are inevitable; don’t let it derail you. Learn and keep going.
- Remind yourself “This effort will pay off in ways I can’t even imagine yet.”
Treat yourself with kindness, no matter what happens. Speak to yourself like you would your best friend.
You are in control of your choices and your journey. Changing the way you think about a healthy lifestyle takes time, but it’s worth it.
Could Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) help?
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a proven approach that helps people replace negative thinking with more balanced, accurate thoughts. By practicing healthy thinking every day, you’ll start to see improvements, and over time, it will become second nature.
Be patient with yourself. Just like developing healthy eating or exercise habits, changing your thinking takes practice. But the more you practice positive thinking, the more natural it will feel, helping you stay on track towards your goal.
Weight management in children
Doctors weigh children at routine checkups. Doctors use growth charts or the body mass index (BMI) to measure a child’s weight in relation to his or her height. If you have concerns that your child is overweight or obese, we can review your child’s growth charts and medical history with you.
- If your child’s BMI has been high on the growth chart from birth, this may be a healthy size and growth rate. They may simply be bigger than other children of the same gender and age.
- If your child’s BMI pattern has suddenly jumped from a lower range to a higher range on the growth chart, your child may be at risk of becoming overweight. Your doctor will carefully track growth over time, watching for a change in the rate of weight gain. Counselling and help with lifestyle changes can lead to a healthier weight.
- If your family has a history of obesity, your child has a higher risk of becoming overweight.
Sometimes a child’s BMI and weight can increase without a child being at risk of having too much body fat. For instance, before and during puberty it is normal for children to have a significant gain in weight before they begin to grow in height.
Children who are very muscular and who are active in sports may have a high BMI, but have normal or even lower-than-normal amounts of body fat.
Weight management in Adults
Experts recommend using BMI and waist size to find out which adults are at risk from being overweight and obese.
If you have a BMI of 30 or higher, your extra weight—as well as unhealthy eating patterns and too little physical activity—may be putting your health in danger.
Where you carry your body fat may be as important as how many extra kilograms you have.
People who carry too much fat around the middle, rather than around the hips, are more likely to have health problems.
- In women, a waist size of 35 in. (88 cm) or more raises the chance for disease.
- In men, a waist size of 40 in. (101 cm) or more raises the chance for disease.
Waist size cutoff not be the same for everyone – ask your doctor.