Maintaining a Healthy Weightīeing underweight, overweight, or obese are conditions that lead to significantly different health complications. Because of all the potential complications of obesity, it has been found to reduce life expectancy, and is classified as one of the leading preventable causes of death worldwide. It can also cause obstructive sleep apnea and depression (or sometimes be caused by depression).

Obesity greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke as well as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders including osteoarthritis, and some cancers. While it can be broken down to the simple, personal case of controlling energy intake and output, there is often more involved and managing obesity on a societal level has far from an algorithmic solution. It is mostly preventable however, through lifestyle and diet changes, though there is still insufficient understanding of all the factors affecting obesity. There are rarer cases where obesity is caused primarily by genes, hormonal imbalances due to endocrine disorders, medications, or mental disorders. Obesity is typically caused by a lack of exercise, excessive food intake, and genetic susceptibility. Effects of Being Underweight, Overweight, and Obese While accurate for an 'average' person, this means that it is possible to be categorized as overweight or underweight and still be 'healthy,' but this requires more than a generalized calculation to determine – likely with the help of a medical professional. Refer to the BMI Calculator for more information, but note that a 'healthy body weight' is based on estimations that do not account for certain factors such as body composition. An adult aged 18 or older with a BMI between 18.5 and 25 kg/m 2 is typically defined as having a healthy or normal weight. Given a specific height, the calculator uses standard algorithms to calculate the range of possible body weights that fall within different categories of weight determined by BMI. The range of healthy body weights is calculated based on BMI.

Effective health calculator