When was the last time you asked yourself “Am I healthy?” and honestly knew the answer? It’s not always an obvious thing to know. That said, many people tend to look specifically at their weight in order to determine their healthfulness. This is a common mistake, and it’s important to know the difference between being your “ideal” body weight and overall healthfulness.
Among the many reasons that people look directly at their weight when they ask themselves if they are healthy is that excess weight, carried for a long time, can increase the risk of many different types of medical condition. Having obesity, for instance, can substantially increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and several forms of cancer, among other issues. That said, just because you have obesity, it doesn’t automatically mean that you are unhealthy.
One of the best things many of us can do for ourselves if we want to reduce our risk of many types of chronic medical condition is to ensure that we’re within a good weight range for our bodies. However, there are other things that should be considered beyond that factor as you ask yourself the question “Am I healthy?” and try to answer it honestly.
Am I healthy? That’s quite a broad question. To answer it, consider the following additional metrics that reach far beyond the number that appears on your bathroom scale.
Checking out your fitness when you’re doing cardio workouts can be a great way to understand one large factor in your investigation into whether or not you’re healthy. This is easier to do if you have a fitness tracker that measures heart rate, but it can be done without one as well. Find out what your resting heart rate is. It should typically fall between about 60 and 100 beats per minute.
Your tracker might tell you this number, or you can check your pulse by using your index and middle finger (not your thumb!) to press on the side of your neck or the inside of your wrist and count the number of beats that occur in 15 seconds. Using a timer makes this far easier. Whatever your total, multiply that by four to get your resting heart rate. Of course, you need to be at rest for this to be accurate. Sit down or lie down and allow your heart rate to slow from any activity you’ve just done before you take your measurement.
Next, do an aerobic/cardio activity and check your heart rate. Your target will depend on your age. For instance, if you’re 25, it’ll be somewhere between 98 and 166. If you’re 55, it’ll be between 83 and 140.
This essentially has to do with how strong you are and how long you can resist fatigue. Generally, it will involve a specific activity and a certain number of repetitions. You might test yourself with crunches, push-ups, pull-ups, etc. This will test different major muscle groups both for what you are able to achieve and how long you can keep doing it. This reveals a whole other side of fitness and health than your weight.
If you find that fatigue is holding you back from doing your workouts or powering through them with your best potential, consider how an energy boosting diet pill might help until you build up your fitness and endurance.
This answer to am I healthy is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the flexibility of your tissues, joints and muscles. It involves tests such as touching your toes, balance, a sit and stretch test, and other similar measures of how much you can bend in various natural directions. This helps you to gauge the condition of your joints, muscles and tissues, which comprise a major component of your body and how it functions.