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Technically, the problem is not overweight but overfat. Some chunky folks really are “all muscle”—although you’re more likely to run into them at a weightlifters’ convention than on the street. Women are overfat when their weight is more than 33- to 36-percent fat; men when it’s over 20- to 25-percent fat. (The lower percentage is for people under 40, the higher for those 60 and older.)
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It’s hard to measure your fat percentage, however, unless you own an electronic body-fat scale ($60 to $120). Otherwise, you need a special test. The most reliable involves weighing yourself under water, where your buoyancy reveals how much of you is muscle, skin, and bones and how much is not. Another test measures the fat beneath your skin by pinching you with spring-loaded calipers.
Most people don’t need to go to this trouble, however. Unless you’re extremely flabby or muscular, you can use a rule of thumb called the Body Mass Index (BMI), which compares your height and weight.
To find your BMI, you can either plug your stats into this equation—
BMI = (Your Weight in Pounds x 703) / Square of Your Height in Inches
—or (much easier) use this nifty table or the Ideal Weight Calculator in DietPower nutrition software. (If you don’t already have DietPower, you can begin using a free trial of the complete program right now by clicking here.)
Porky Celebs
Once you know your BMI, you also know whether you’re “underweight,” “normal weight,” “overweight,” “obese,” or “severely obese.” Below are the official definitions, along with a few celebrities in each class.
You are underweight if your BMI is under 18.5. Fashion model Kate Moss (15.7) is underweight. So are author Joyce Carole Oates (15.5) and former First Lady Nancy Reagan (18.2). So were musician Tommy Dorsey (15.5) and Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (17.2). (Underweight carries health risks of its own. Click here to see a study relating underweight, overweight, and longevity.)
Your weight is normal or healthy if your BMI is 18.5 to 24.9. Prince Charles (22.2) is normal-weight. So are ballerina Margot Fonteyn (19.2), financial columnist Sylvia Porter (19.9), and Olympic skater Scott Hamilton (19.5).
You’re overweight if your BMI is 25.0 to 29.9. Rap singer Queen Latifah (25.8) is overweight, as are fitness guru Richard Simmons (25.0), former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein (31.4 before hanging), and (yes, it’s true) Hollywood hunk George Clooney (29.4). You’re obese if your BMI is 30.0 to 39.9. Anthropologist Margaret Mead (32.0) was obese. Others in this group include American Civil Liberties Union founder Elizabeth Gurley (33.3); conservative radio-talk-show host Rush Limbaugh (35.3, although he looks thinner lately); and King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV of the Polynesian island of Tonga (37.5).