Your smile The higher your body-mass index, a measure of height-to-weight ratio, the greater your gum disease risk, reports the Journal of Periodontology. Women who are overweight (a BMI of 25 to 29.9) or obese (30 or higher BMI) produce more cytokines, proteins that speed inflammation caused by "bad" oral bacteria. Calculate your BMI now.
Your fertility Any woman who wishes to get pregnant may want to shed extra fat, especially if her BMI is in the unhealthy range. For every BMI point above 29, your likelihood of conceiving drops by 4 percent, a study in Human Reproduction shows. For instance, a BMI of 40 reduces chances by 46 percent. Experts suspect weight-related hormone shifts inhibit fertilization.
Your knees Every extra pound of body weight you carry is a real grind on knees, says Stephen Messier, Ph.D., of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He found that among older adults, each pound lost translated to 4 pounds less force on the joints—and less damage to protective cartilage.
Your heart Having a too-high BMI increases your lifetime risk for heart disease, findings in the journal Diabetes Care reveal. The study showed that 39 percent of overweight women and 47 percent of obese women will develop cardiovascular disease, compared with 34 percent of normal-weight women.Your breasts Fat cells produce estrogen, a hormone that stimulates breast tumor development when levels are high. Obese women produce three times more estrogen than lean women, says Walter Willett, Dr.P.H., chair of the department of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.