underweight
This is how it is recognized and treated
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Although underweight is not as common as overweight in industrialized nations, it can also be dangerous. Here’s what you should know about it!
Underweight – what is that actually?
Officially, you are underweight if your BMI (“Body Mass Index”) is below 18.5. However, the BMI is considered outdated – there are also various individual factors that play a role in determining whether one is still within the normal weight range.
Underweight or Malnutrition?
Even if both terms sound similar at first – being underweight and malnourished are two different things. Malnutrition (also “malnutrition”) is always accompanied by deficiency symptoms that do not necessarily occur with underweight. In the primary form of malnutrition, the person affected does not have sufficient food with all the necessary nutrients; in the secondary form, diseases or medication are considered to be the triggers instead of nutrition.
Symptoms: what happens if you weigh too little?
It does happen to affected people Deficiency symptoms (mild or severe) can have the following effects on the body:
- Metabolism is slowed down
- Impaired fluid balance
- Low blood pressure
- muscle breakdown
- hair breakage
- Constant chills
- menstruation may be absent
- Osteoporosis can develop (and fatally often goes unnoticed for a long time)
- Muscle function is impaired
- Wound healing slows down
- susceptibility to infection increases
- Diseases tend to be more complicated and last longer
- Life expectancy decreases
Causes of being underweight
In industrialized nations, low body weight is usually due to illnesses and more rarely directly on the diet. The following causes can be considered:
- Insufficient nutrient intake (e.g. due to malnutrition, loss of appetite or injuries)
- Food is not properly utilized (e.g. due to chronic diseases such as Crohn’s disease or hyperthyroidism, due to parasites or insufficient nutrient breakdown in the intestine)
- Generally increased metabolism (e.g. caused by an infection)
- Idiopathic anorexia (“anorexia with no apparent cause”, often hereditary)
- Older age (elderly people suffer more often from loss of appetite or from physical or mental limitations)
- High calorie consumption
For health: what helps against underweight?
The weight should be slowly brought back to a normal level through healthy eating. The best way to do this is to first calculate your own basal metabolic rate (the calories that the body needs to function) and the performance turnover (additional consumption, for example through sport). Adding both results in total sales. In order to gain weight in a healthy way, you should consume about 500 more calories a day than you use up. Depending on the cause of the symptoms, some of those affected also need psychological support.
Further help: The BMI calculator
Not sure if your weight is within the normal range? You can find more information on this in our BMI calculator!