Body Weight - What's Normal? / Question
Published: February 4, 2009
Dear TeenHealthFX,
hi, i am a 15 year old girl soon to be 16. i hate my weight and the way i look. i'm only 4'11 but i weigh 118 pounds! am i overweight or at risk of becoming obese? please help!
Signed: Am I Overweight At 4'11
Dear Am I Overweight At 4'11,
One useful way to determine whether someone is in a healthy weight range is by calculating their body mass index (BMI). BMI is a calculation that uses height and weight to estimate how much body fat someone has. It is used to determine how appropriate a person’s weight is for their height, gender, and age.
TeenHealthFX calculated your BMI based on your height, weight and age and found that you have a BMI of 23.8. This places you at the 81st percentile for girls in your age group, and indicates that you at a healthy weight. At this BMI, you are not considered to be overweight and are not close to being considered obese.
If you find that you are having a lot of difficulty dealing with your current weight, start out by speaking to your primary care physician or an adolescent medicine specialist. A doctor’s feedback may help to alleviate any concerns you may have, and a doctor could also describe some exercises that might help to firm and tone your muscles (if that is even needed). A doctor could also help to reassure you about what “normal” weight consists of, as females today are bombarded by so many images of supper-skinny models and celebrities and are made to think that this is the norm. But the fact is that being so supper-skinny is not the norm at all for women, and many of these women use very unhealthy means of achieving this look. It can give you a very false idea of what you should be looking like and lead to a negative self-image.
If you don't have a doctor and live in northern
To calculate your own BMI, and to learn more about this issue, go to the following link:
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/Calculator.aspx
Signed: TeenHealthFX
The teen pregnancy rate in the United States is the highest of any industrialized democracy, nearly twice that of Great Britain and 10 times that of Japan. 
