If you are currently struggling to maintain a healthy weight, then it turns out there's more than just a fashionable waistline to be gained by losing weight. In fact, a recent major international study shows that people who are overweight or obese are reducing their life expectancy by up to ONE DECADE. British researchers have pulled together studies that include a million people, including Australians, to look at how a person's Body Mass Index (BMI) can be a predictor of early death. So if you are looking for motivation to lose weight, how does an extra ten years sound?

We're often so caught up with the way we look in comparison to all those skinny supermodels out there, but I call this an unhealthy obsession with thin-ness. In fact, we should me aiming at maintaining a health weight for our age and height that allows us to enjoy our lives at every level. Obviously if you are overweight, you're not going to have a great quality of life. On the other hand if you starve yourself life isn't exactly going to be a picnic either; balance is the key.

News reports quoted the following: "Almost 70,000 of the test subjects died during the study, and the fewest of these came from the group with a healthy body shape (BMI of 22.5 to 25). At the other end of the scale, people with a BMI indicating they were overweight (30 - 35 BMI) were shown to have died up to four years earlier than expected. Those in the obese category (40 - 45 BMI) reduced their survival by eight to ten years, the same as life-long smokers."

The study also found that with every five point increase in BMI, the person increased their chance of dying during the study by 30 per cent. The major causes of death were vascular and kidney problems such as heart attack or diabetes.

In case you haven't hear of BMI before, a person's BMI rating is a calculation which takes in their weight and height. For example, a person who is 170cm tall and who weighs 70kg has a BMI of 24.2 - this is considered to be within the healthy range. If you don't want to do the calculations yourself, then you will find lots of BMI calculators on the internet that will do it for you. Whatever the case, it's worth finding out what your BMI is. It will give you an indication of whether or not you are a healthy weight.

So if you need to lose weight when is the best time to get started? Well, now is as good a time as any. Many people view losing weight as something they will do 'one day' or 'when they get around to it. That's half the problem; then one day you wake up and you realize you're 15 kilos overweight and struggling to enjoy life. As you get older, you must take better care of yourself. When we're younger our metabolism is much faster, so we burn calories much more easily. This makes it easier to consume a diet of highly processed and fatty foods while still maintaining a healthy weight. But once you hit 25, it gets a little harder. This is the time when you may start to gain weight.

A few lifestyle changes such as regular weight bearing exercise and a diet rich in fresh, non-processed foods can make all the difference. That doesn't mean you have to become a monk - you can sill enjoy some of the less nutritional foods and lose weight at the same time. My 37 year old client 'Laurie' discovered this after several years of trying to shift a couple of kilos that had settled rather uncomfortably around his belly. This was a bit of a shock to 'Laurie', who had been reed thin all his life until a couple of years ago.

And 'Laurie's' diet reflected the indifference of a teenager; it was riddled with fat, sugar and salt; a surefire recipe for a heart-attack. But with a little tweaking, Laurie was able to drop the kilos and still enjoy some of the things he loved to eat. Whatever age you are, it's never too late to change. Losing weight will help you to feel better about everything; furthermore, achieving a healthy weight will give you more time to enjoy life.