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Are you amongst the many millions of men and women who look in the mirror every day and say to themselves “I have to lose a bit of weight”? Practically everybody has done this at some time and in most cases you do indeed need to lose some weight. However, this is not always the case and so how do you know whether or not you really ought to get rid of those extra pounds?

A significant problem with weight gain lies in the fact that it has a tendency to creep up on you when you are not paying attention and this is being witnessed especially in countries such as the US where obesity has now become an epidemic. Because however your weight often rises slowly over several months, you usually simply do not notice the increase in terms of changes to your looks and are only conscious of it when you jump on the bathroom scales. As a result, it is a good idea to get into the habit of checking your weight on a regular basis (roughly once a month is normally sufficient) and if you discover that it has risen significantly then it is time to lose some weight.

Opinions vary about precisely what constitutes obesity but for our purposes here if your weight has risen by in excess of about thirty pounds then you are in all probability heading for obesity and a raft of accompanying medical problems.

Yet another sure sign that you probably ought to to go on a diet is when a friend tells you that you are overweight. Now it is possible that you will take offense if somebody tells you that you ought to lose some weight but remember that they most likely found it hard to find the courage to tell you and are also practically always demonstrating a genuine concern about your state of health, rather than passing comment on the way you look.

A further sign that you have gained too much weight is seen when you begin having difficulty with normally easy tasks like climbing the stairs or running to catch a bus and find yourself getting short of breath all too quickly. This will not necessarily be the result of being overweight and could be caused by other medical problems, however you will be surprised at how many times the cause is indeed weight. Your body is beginning to sound its alarm bells and these should not be ignored.

A last and very simple, although frequently ignored, sign of weight gain is quite simply finding that your clothes do not fit as they used to. A bit of a tight waistband after Christmas is normal for a lot of us but when it continues getting tighter and tighter and you find yourself buying larger and larger sizes every time you shop then the time has come to diet before your waist stretches not only your clothes but also your store card.

These are of course just a handful of examples of the numerous indicators that you are overweight to the point at which you need to take steps to correct the situation. Excessive weight tends to creep up on you slowly and it is all too easy simply not to notice it at all. But the secret to looking and feeling good is comparatively simple - know your ideal weight and hop on the bathroom scales once in a while to make sure that you are not putting on too much weight.

Obesity, and particularly teenage obesity, these days is a rising problem and one which has serious medical complications. It is also a good idea therefore to learn how to calculate BMI which is the medical indicator for obesity.