5 Benefits of Playing Sports

Maintaining a Healthy Weight

By Brooklyn Glasgow

This blog is one of my favourites. Today we will be discussing about the BMI System and how it’s outdate but we will mainly be talking about maintaining a healthy weight. I would love to hear your thoughts about this subject so please feel free to add your ideas in the comments. In the next blog will be focusing on building self-esteem which is very important to have when trying to eat healthy and stay active.

Everyone has different ideas of what a healthy weight is. For the longest time society believed that a healthy weight meant that you had a BMI “Body Mass Index'' of 18.5 to 24.9. People used to think and others still believe that if you’re between this weight that means you fall within the “normal” or “healthy” weight. However some people think that BMI is an inaccurate and outdated system to measure whether or not someone has a “normal” body. When you research on google  “what is considered a healthy weight” information about BMI comes up as results. This brings negativity to society, especially to young girls and boys who are struggling with body issues. As the world changes, thoughts about this system are becoming negative.

According to PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Centre, healthy weight is defined as one that can be comfortably maintained with normal healthy eating and regular physical activity. Everyone's body is different, and we cannot all be categorized the same. Some people have more muscle than others, and some people have a different shape compared to others. It isn't fair that we are all put into one box and if we don’t fit in such we get judged by ourselves and society. According to an article by Health, for athletes with loads of lean muscle mass, BMI measurements can be extremely misleading because the scales don't differentiate fat and muscle. For instance, the famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a BMI of 30.8 and according to this oudated system, 30.0 is considered obese. It is quite obvious that this actor is nowhere near out of shape. We as a unite need to find a new system that is legitimate and takes in consideration others muscle mass and more importantly our sex and age.

“Stop trying to fix your body. It was never broken.” Eve Ensler

I believe that a healthy weight varies for different people. Being healthy means eating healthy, staying active, and having good mental health. When maintaining a healthy weight, people need to forget about the number on the scale, and need to focus on whether or not they can do more. It is important to maintain a healthy weight because it can lower the risk for certain diseases and conditions and most importantly it's good for your health. For me personally, I find playing sports and staying active has helped me stay in shape. Playing rep soccer has helped me understand the importance of eating healthy and how it can affect my game. This has pushed me to have good meals everyday and to eat less junk food. However, it can be challenging to constantly eat healthy and stay active if you’re always doing the same thing. I did some research and tried to find new ways for me to stay healthy. For a week I attempted these new tips to see if they would be useful.

The first thing I did was try to make every bite count while eating. I normally watch a show while I eat but I’ve noticed that when I do that I get distracted and I fail to listen to my body when I’m full. So this week while I ate I read a book instead. This helped me because I would take breaks while eating and this would help me realize whether or not I'm still hungry. Along with watching my portions I also followed a suggestion from a book called Superhero Nutrition by Steve Zim. In this book it talks about the Burn Zone which is basically the time of day where your insulin spikes which is normally 2 hours after you eat. That is when you’re in the Burn Zone and you have a better chance of losing weight during this time. So five days during the week, I would schedule my meals according to when I wanted to workout. Two hours before I was planning on working out I would eat a meal. I found it challenging at first to stay on schedule with my meals but after the first two days it got easier and I felt a difference. It may not have been huge but it was still a nice change. This week I worked out five times. I had soccer four days during the week but I still went on a run in the morning on days I had practices. I also did my own workout on a day I didn't have soccer. By the end of the week I felt healthy and in shape. Making small little tweaks in my life impacted it in a major way. I took a couple of the new things I tried and have now applied it to my everyday life.

In conclusion, everyone has different perspectives on what is a healthy weight. As a society we need to realize that everyone is different and that we can’t all be measured the same. I hope that one day the BMI system isn’t an option anymore and we find a more positive way to measure our weight. 

“You define beauty yourself. Society doesn’t define your beauty.” -Lady Gaga