• Question: How does the size and weight of us affect our health?

    Asked by Resh@science to Chris, Hayley, Jimi, Maddison, Omur on 14 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Omur Tastan

      Omur Tastan answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      Our size/weight can affect our health a lot. We all should have a balanced diet to keep our weight under control and exercise on top of that. It is easier said then done. ๐Ÿ™‚
      Being overweight/obese can bring lots of diseases with it. Some of the diseases are Type 2 diabetes, High cholesterol, High blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and many others. So it is important to keep a helthy diet and avoid all these illnesses ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Photo: Hayley Moulding

      Hayley Moulding answered on 14 Mar 2016:

      The size and weight of individuals can affect their health massively. It can affect us a lot. We need to be aware of our weight and make sure that it is controlled. We can do this by making sure we have a balanced diet and exercise! A good healthy balanced lifestyle and diet will help us a lot. It helps us to try and avoid some disease (that Omur has explain well below!) Keeping an eye on our weight and size can help us to live a happy and healthy life! That doesn’t mean we should all be really skinny and constantly thinking about our weight. Of course not. We just need to make sure we live a balanced life and have a balanced diet!

    • Photo: Jimi Wills

      Jimi Wills answered on 15 Mar 2016:

      Your weight/size can affect you in different ways. It depends what kind of weight/size you have:

      1) Too thin – can give you bone, tooth, mental and reproductive problems
      2) Too fat – can give you joint, heart, kidney and reproductive problems
      3) Too muscley – can give you heart, kidney and gut problems

      Also, very fast changes in weight can be bad for your organs… e.g. losing muscle very quickly releases a lot of nitrogen containing compounds that are bad for you kidneys.

      As a general rule, and adult should have a BMI (body mass index) of between 20 and 25. But it’s just a guideline.

      BMI is weight in kg divided by the square of height in meters…
      For example:
      I am 75 kg and 1.7 meters.
      1.7 squared (1.7 x 1.7) = 2.9
      75 / 2.9 = 26.

      So I am in the overweight category! But only just. As long as I eat healthily and get some exercise I’ll hopefully be okay…

Comments