Overweight

Overweight means carrying more body weight than is considered healthy for your height – in adults, from a BMI of 25; from 30 upwards, it's called obesity. BMI is a simple calculation based on weight and height, nothing more: it knows neither how much muscle you have nor where the fat is stored.

That's why it's worth taking a second look. A muscular handball player can have a BMI of 27 without carrying a single gram of excess fat. And from around the age of 65, a slightly higher BMI – up to about 27 – is often considered harmless, because small reserves can offer protection during illness. What matters more is whether fat is accumulating in the abdomen: according to the WHO, a waist circumference of 80 cm or more in women and 94 cm or more in men increases the risk of metabolic diseases. An even simpler rule: your waist should measure less than half your height.

In Germany, overweight is the rule rather than the exception: according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's public health agency, more than half of adults have a BMI of 25 or more. Among children and teenagers, the figure is around 15% according to the KiGGS study – but here, BMI alone never counts; age-specific percentiles do, because the body is constantly changing as it grows.

What to do? First of all, don't rush into anything. Being slightly overweight without belly fat and with good blood values doesn't call for a diet. If you want to change something, start with your habits: water instead of sugary drinks, vegetables with every meal, a walk every day, enough sleep. A calorie deficit of about 500 kcal a day works out at around half a kilo a week; with 300 kcal, it's slower but often feels easier.

For children: no diets, no weighing in front of the family, no comments about their bodies. Children often simply “grow into their weight” when the whole family eats better and becomes more active together. If you're worried, your paediatrician is the right person to ask – they know the percentile charts.