You can lower your BMI by losing weight. Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. It's often used to determine a person's risk for health problems. Being overweight can put you at risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, certain types of cancer and osteoarthritis. A BMI of 25 or more is considered overweight or obese, while a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal weight. Follow a healthy eating plan and engage in regular physical activity to lose body fat and lower your BMI.
Calories
To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. You can do this by reducing calorie intake, increasing physical activity or both. To lose 1 lb., you will need to reduce your normal caloric intake over time by 3,500 calories. If you choose to reduce calorie intake, choose low-calorie foods that are high in nutritional value. Make the bulk of your diet consist of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, legumes, low-fat diary products, nuts and seeds. Cut back on high-fat, high-calorie foods like cakes, cookies, fried foods and processed baked goods.
Satiety
Portion size is key to losing weight. You might overeat if you don't eat filling foods. Filling foods include those that contain fiber, fat and protein. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that the body can't digest. It's found in whole fruits and vegetables, beans and whole-grain breads and breakfast cereals. Most adult women should aim for over 20 g of fiber a day; men should shoot for over 30 g, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. "Good" fats, or monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, are found in plant-based oils, fatty fish and nuts. Protein is found in animal and vegetable products. The best animal sources for protein are fish and poultry.
Volume
Foods that have high volume are also filling. If they have a low ratio of calories to volume, they're also good for weight loss. High water content typically expands the volume of a food. Examples of foods with high volume compared to calorie are fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk, lean protein sources, whole grains and soups. In a 1999 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, lean women were either served a chicken and rice casserole before a meal or chicken and rice soup before a meal. Both the soup and the casserole contained equal calories, but the soup contained the addition of water, increasing its volume. Those served the soup consumed fewer calories than those served the casserole.
Foods
Examples of low-calorie breakfasts include oatmeal, whole-grain cereals, fruit and yogurt and egg white omelets. For lunch, try a turkey sandwich with whole-wheat bread, a salad with several vegetables and vinaigrette dressing, fish tacos or a bean burrito. For dinner, try starting with soup. Choose lean meats and make vegetables a larger portion of the meal. For snacks, try popcorn, trail mix, smoothies or dried fruit.
Tips
Lose weight gradually to keep from becoming too hungry and quickly gaining back the weight. Aim for a weight loss of 1 to 2 lbs. per week. Make small changes to your diet. Make substitutions in recipes that you normally make, rather than learning all new recipes. Go slow. Making too many drastic changes at once increases the likelihood that your diet will fail. Try to make one dietary change per week.
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