It has been found through a number of studies that the risk of dying of heart disease or of developing cancer increases among those in the upper half of the normal BMI range. Therefore, it is recommended that you maintain a BMI between 20 and 23. The chart below is a copy of the Body Mass Index Table. To be in that BMI range, as an example, if you are 6 feet tall, you should weigh between 147-169 pounds.
If you are concerned that you will look too skinny, you may want to read this blog post titled, "American Adults Are Overweight."
The conclusions of a study by Appleby, Thorogood, and Mann of over 5,000 people found that non-meat eaters were thinner than meat-eaters, especially those non-meat eaters with a lower intake of alcohol.
Susan Berklow and Neal Barnard found that the body weight of both male and female vegetarians is, on average, 3 percent to 20 percent lower than that of meat-eaters. Vegetarian and vegan diets have also been put to the test in clinical studies. The best of these clinical studies isolated the effects of diet by keeping exercise constant. The researchers found that a low-fat vegan diet leads to weight loss of about 1 pound per week, even without additional exercise or limits on portion sizes, calories, or carbohydrates.
Type 2 Diabetes often accompanies obesity. Over 8% of American adults are diabetic, and over 150,000 young people have the disease.
One frightening element of our growing obesity epidemic is the number of overweight and obese children. Overweight children and teens often have elevated cholesterol levels, elevated blood pressure, sleep apnea and a wide variety of bone problems.