Being a healthy weight

Maintaining a healthy weight is essential to good health. It helps you move around easily, take part in everyday social activities and helps prevent illnesses.

What is a healthy weight?

For adults

A Body Mass Index (BMI) is used to test whether you are a healthy weight. This calculate your weight divided by your height.

This table shows the BMI levels.

Age group	Weight
Less than 18.5	Underweight
Between 18.5 and 24.9	Healthy weight
Between 25 and 29.9	Overweight
Between 30 and 39.9	Obese
Over 40	Very obese

You can use the NHS Choices Healthy Weight Calculator to measure your BMI.

For children

For children the calculation is more complicated, their BMI needs to be compared to other information about how they grow at different ages.

There is a national programme to measure children's weight in schools. You can also use the NHS Choices Healthy Weight Calculator .

Being overweight or obese

If you are overweight or obese it can have a significant impact on your health. It can contribute to:

high blood pressure
diabetes
heart disease
strokes
cancer.

Help losing weight

If you are thinking about losing weight there is a variety of support available to help you. The NHS Choices website has a lot of useful information on losing weight.

Your GP, practice nurse or other community health professionals, health visitor or school nurse can help you if you have any weight concerns. They can provide:

an assessment of your weight
motivation for behavourial change and support
tests.

Weight management

We commission Your Health Notts to support Nottinghamshire residents (children, young people, adults and families) to get active, lose weight, reduce alcohol intake and quit smoking.