How to Lower Your BMI

Better

Rhiannon: We’ve got the perfect challenge for you. We’re entering the third month of
family circles 3 part walking challenge. This part the magazine is focusing
on helping to lower your BMI through specific walking workouts and diet
tips. Meg Ragland Health Director of Family Circle joined us now to
discuss all of this welcome Meg.

Meg Ragland: Thanks for having me.

Rhiannon: Nice to have you so tell us what is BMI and why do we need to care about
it?

Meg Ragland: Well BMI stands for your body mass index it’s a ratio of your height and
weight so what we really want to do is focus on this is like the most
important month for a lot of people especially with summer and bathing
suit season coming is it’s going to help you lose those unwanted pounds
especially any last lingering pounds at the end of the challenge but if you
haven’t joined there’s style time to join.

Rhiannon: There is still time.

Meg Ragland: Yes.

Rhiannon: So how do people join?

Meg Ragland: They go to family circle.com walk 2010 and if they want to start at the
beginning with month one that’s on there and month two and then in the
magazine in the July issue is month 3 of the challenge.

Rhiannon: So they don’t have to jump right into month.

Meg Ragland: Right they can start where they can feel is appropriate for their activity
level.

Rhiannon: So where did people what their BMI. What is a good number for people.

Meg Ragland: Well I mean it depends obviously that there is a healthy range of BMI so
you can actually go be marking heart association on their website. You
can go and then plug in your height and weight and I’ll tell you your BMI
until. I’ll tell you if you’re in a healthy range or if you really need to work
on lowering your waist.

Rhiannon: So how can we lower that number?

Meg Ragland: Well walking is a great option of course.

Rhiannon: We know it’s a great workout even though a lot of people think it’s not.

Meg Ragland: Right. It really is and in month 3 of the challenge we really tell people to
really get that calorie burn going to tackle some hills or some inclines
some stairs even if you do it in your stairs in the house. If you have no
access to stairs you live in an apartment like many of us do here in New
York City and go out to a curve and you can even step up and back, up
and back a curve for about10 minutes.

So it’s a really it’s a doable plan anywhere and when you start tackling
those inclines then you’re working size and buttocks and you can build
muscle in those areas then you’re going to be burning more calories
throughout the day even when you’re sitting.

Rhiannon: What I love about this challenge since it is a walking one the whole family
can jump in?

Meg Ragland: Right that’s right. We’re really encouraging people to grab their kids to all
go out walking together.

Rhiannon: And what are some ways what should people be doing with their diet
because it’s not all about exercise?

Meg Ragland: That’s right. We do have a diet plan along with this that they can see really
great breakfast, lunch dinner and snack ideas and we really focus on
telling people to they can eat a lot of low calorie foods. We want them to
avoid sugar crashes so they should be eating more often and just watch
that calorie intake because it is true calories in calories out.

Rhiannon: So how many calories a day should the average person really be getting?

Meg Ragland: Well with our challenge we offer a calorie count of 1500 calories and
that’s what two snacks a day. If you really try to lose weight you might
want to cut that back to one stack a day.

Rhiannon: And does it matter for men and women or should both average?

Meg Ragland: Well me usually do need to eat more so you know looking at when you’re
looking at your BMI with a BMI calculator it will suggest you how many
calories you should be consuming based on if you want to maintain your
weight or if you want to be loosing weight.

Rhiannon: Well that’s good and what about— I know you guys have some good
music play list on there.

Meg Ragland: Yeah we do. We have some great play list on again it’s the family
circle.com/walk2010 and we have them for if you want to go out for a 15
minute walk 20 minute walk 30 minute walk, 45 minute walk and if you
want to go to fris pace or if you want to do intervals so there’s all options
out there and there’s some really fun songs in there. You have no— you
can’t do anything but walk and be motivated.

Rhiannon: You want to get moving, right. Perfect, thank you so much Meg and as
Meg mentioned you can go to familycircle.com/walk2010 everyday to
sign up for a 12 week walking newsletter and/or health. Readers loved the
most miles could win a 7 night daily vacation for an inclined trainer. Our
website Better TV.com will also have a link to all the info.