Weight Management Case Study

Change your mindset and you can change your body, discipline can be the difference between dieting and weight management. Health behaviors have a great effect on how we live our lives, often dictating how we experience our environment. One health behavior that many find difficult, including myself, to alter or manage over time is weight. The physical weight of an individual affects how the individual sees the world and poses a risk to health and wellbeing. A way to manage weight is through a behavioral contract, which aims to change current health behavior and form better, healthier habits. Through an individualized, self-monitored behavior contract and social support, healthy weight management may be achieved. Healthy weight management is more than a diet; weight management is a lifestyle that aims to regulate caloric intake and expenditure in accordance to the amount of physical activity that occurs daily. The goal of weight management is to keep an individual’s body fat content to a healthy minimum, which is important for maintaining overall health and lowering risks of health threats throughout the lifespan (“Assessing Your Weight”, 2015). To measure healthy body fat rates, a Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated by dividing the weight of the individual by their height squared. Healthy BMI for an individual changes over time

Currently my weight, according to health standards, is unhealthy and qualifies as being obese. Obesity is defined as an individual having a high amount of extra body weight, which is not from muscle and bone, but rather excess fat . Being obese puts me at a higher risk for developing weight related health issues, such as high blood pressure, heart disease and some forms of cancer(“Assessing Your Weight”, 2015). The weight related risk increase, along with genetic risk factors for developing diabetes, encourages me to pursue a change in my current