Being underweight is something that affects people all over the world and it can have consequences as dangerous as being overweight has.
Weight
Your weight is determined by a number of factors, some of which you can’t control and some of which you can. The major thing affecting your weight that you can’t control is you genetic and physiologic make-up, which plays some role in how your body responds to food and uses food.
The things you can control are exercise and diet, and to some extent whether you use food as a coping mechanism for stressful situations. With moderate exercise you can maintain a healthy weight. Of course if you are bodybuilding you will end up with an excess amount of weight. A balanced diet keeps you at a normal weight, while diets high in fat and unhealthy carbohydrates can contribute to obesity.
Measuring weight
The ideal weight differs from person to person and that is why a body mass index (BMI) is used. This is basically weight in kilograms, divided by the height in meters squared. Essentially it is the amount of weight per square meter of your body. This system works for the average person but will not work for pregnant women, body builders, and competitive athletes. An ideal BMI is said to be between 22 and 25. If you are below 22 you are underweight, and if you are above 25 you are overweight.
Causes of being underweight
There are generally two categories when it comes to a low weight. The first is when you consciously try to lose weight, and the second is when there is some sort of underlying disease process causing weight loss.
Psychological conditions like anorexia and bulimia result in dramatic weight loss. With both these conditions the individuals perceive themselves as being overweight, and subsequently resort or extreme measures to lose weight. This includes starving, binge eating and purging thereafter, excessive exercise, the use of weight loss pills and laxatives.
In type one diabetes the pancreas doesn’t make insulin. Insulin is needed to get glucose from the blood to the cells in the body so that it can be used as energy. No insulin means the glucose can’t get into cells. This leads to the energy reserves stored in muscles and fat being used up, and therefore weight is lost. With inflammatory bowel disease there is recurrent diarrhoea, which leads to weight loss.
What you can do
Getting to a healthy weight all depends on what the cause of it is. If you are starving yourself or resorting to other inappropriate methods of weight loss then you may consider speaking to a psychologist about what’s really bothering you. If you have type one diabetes you will be put onto an insulin regimen and this will help to maintain a good weight. If you have inflammatory bowel disease then you can get medication to help reduce the inflammation, and subsequently help reduce the diarrhea. If low weight runs in the family you can alter your diet so that you can gain weight.
