People living with heart failure probably visit their cardiologist regularly for checkups. At those visits, a doctor orders lab work and other tests to check the patient’s heart health. The doctor may also offer tips for ways to help manage heart failure.
One key step in managing heart failure is to maintain a healthy weight. Learn about what your weight has to do with heart failure and how to lower your BMI to stay healthy.
Understanding Heart Failure
Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure, isn’t exactly what it sounds like. When you have heart failure, your heart isn’t usually at risk of suddenly failing. Instead, heart failure develops over time. After a while, your heart will weaken and struggle to effectively pump blood.
In the first stages of heart failure, you may not notice any symptoms. But soon, your heart struggles to pump blood and has trouble moving oxygen through the body. The lack of oxygen causes symptoms, such as shortness of breath and fatigue.
The progression of heart failure varies from person to person. If your doctor diagnoses it early, making changes, like losing weight, can help limit symptoms and slow it getting worse.
The Connection Between Heart Failure and BMI
Your body mass index (BMI) is an indicator of the balance of fat and muscle mass in your body. Everyone’s BMI is ranked based on their size – measuring height compared to weight. The higher your BMI, the more at risk you are of having health issues.
When you read through the risk factors for nearly any heart disease, you’ll see “being overweight” listed. Having extra weight can increase your risk of having health issues, such as high blood pressure, cholesterol or diabetes.
When you have heart failure, it becomes especially important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Ultimately, you want to limit or even eliminate the risk factors related to your heart, allowing it to function at a healthy level as you age.
Losing weight helps protect your heart by lowering your blood pressure, reducing your cholesterol and keeping your blood sugar in check. Then there are all the other benefits of maintaining a healthy weight that are not only heart-related.
If you’re concerned about your weight, next time you go in for a checkup, have your provider offer their perspective. Your medical team can also tell you about how to get to a healthy weight.
Weight is an important metric for those who have heart failure. Even if your BMI is in a healthy range, keep a careful eye on your weight and report any sudden weight gain or weight loss to your medical providers. Both can be an indicator of worsening heart failure.
How to Lower Your BMI
There’s no real secret to lowering your BMI. BMI is simply an estimate of whether someone is at a healthy weight. If you have a high BMI, to lower your BMI into a healthy range, you need to lose weight.
Not sure where to begin when it comes to losing weight? Start with these diet and exercise basics:
Eat a healthy diet.
When you’re aiming to lose weight, steer clear of fad diets. Instead, focus on your eating habits and create sustainable, healthier habits. Fill your plate with plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. Prepare those foods by baking or grilling them, rather than frying them. Jazz them up with herbs and spices rather than unhealthy sauces.
Choose whole foods.
Need a little more guidance about the foods you should eat? Choose foods as close to their original state as possible rather than processed foods. Because whole foods have not been heavily processed, they are also higher in nutrients, such as fiber and vitamins, and are lower in salt, sugar and preservatives.
Read your food labels.
If you usually toss food into the grocery cart without reading the nutrition label, now’s a good time to change that. The nutrition label on the back of the package can offer you info about whether a food is healthy or not. Look for items that are low in sodium, added sugar and saturated fat. A general rule of thumb for finding healthy foods? The fewer ingredients, the better. Here is a guide to better understand food labels.
Move your body more.
Most American adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity each week to maintain optimal health. When you’re trying to lose weight, though, you will likely need at least 300 minutes of exercise a week. Do what you enjoy and gets you moving. Anything that gets your heart beating faster is a great choice.
Build some muscle.
It’s important to do many types of exercise to avoid injury and find the healthiest balance. Consider activities like walking, swimming or dancing. Also pick strength-building activities, which will help you build lean muscle mass while losing fat. You can lift weights or perform exercises that rely on lifting your own body weight. Aim for strength training at least twice a week.
Strike the right balance.
To lose weight, your calorie intake needs to be less than the calories you expend each day. If you’re just beginning an exercise routine, you may find that you’re hungry and tempted to eat more. Stick with balanced meals and snacks filled with healthy foods in moderate portions.
Go slow and steady.
Your medical provider can identify how much weight you need to lose to get to a healthy BMI. But recognize that it won’t happen overnight—and it shouldn’t. If you lose weight quickly, you’re more likely to regain that weight. Practice the healthy habits identified above and aim to lose a pound or two a week until you reach your target weight.
More to Read
- Strength Training for Weight Loss: Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat
- Why Exercise Impacts So Much More Than Your Waistline
- 6 Ways to Have Heart-Healthy Meals on the Go
- How Eating Added Sugar Puts You at Higher Risk for Health Issues
Medically reviewed by Niteen Milak, MD.
