Calculating How Much Weight to Lose

For most people, permanent recovery from obesity is a long journey.  Like any journey it can be helpful to have an idea of what your final destination will be to help you plan how to get there.  This section outlines the calculations you need to do to work out how much weight you’ve got to lose to get to a BMI of 29.  The calculations below are worked out for our hypothetical person, who is 130kg in weight and 1.72m in height. 

If you are having difficulty with the arithmetic don’t worry, lots of people do. You don’t have to be a mathematician to recover from obesity. If you are struggling to follow the instructions below just email the Kia Ākina co-ordinator at info@kiaakina.nz and they will be able to help you.  You could also come to one of our network meetings and you will find someone there who will be able to help you with this.   

How much weight does our hypothetical person, who is 1.72 metres in height and 130 kilograms in weight, need to lose to get to a BMI of 29? To calculate this you need to multiply the desired BMI (29) by your height in metres twice (e.g. 29 x 1.72 x1.72 = 86).  

Using the calculation above we can see that at a BMI of 29, our hypothetical person will weigh 86kg.  This means they need to lose 44kg from a baseline of 130kg to get to that ultimate goal (130kg-86kg=44kg).  

Most people would agree that losing any amount of weight can feel like a big ask.  No one in Kia Ākina would disagree.  Chances are, if you are reading this information, you have already tried multiple times to lose weight.  Chances are you have also had times where this has gone well and other times where this has not gone well.  No matter where you are on your journey of recovery from obesity, if you need encouragement and support to help you stay on this journey please don’t hesitate to utilise any resources Kia Ākina can offer you.