I’m overweight, I don’t exercise and I like ordering a cheeky takeaway every now and again. All in all though, I still think I am quite healthy. There’s always things that could be improved, but as I don’t drink (more than 10 glasses a year) and I don’t smoke, I do think that I am not at a major risk of developing serious illnesses like heart disease or diabetes, but am I actually right?

There are many possibilities to check your health. Seeing your GP is probably the most common one, but busy bees like me can run a quick health check online by simply answering some questions about their health. The medical information and support website Patient.co.uk offers a free online health check that takes you less than 10 minutes and after psyching myself up, I decided to face the truth and check how healthy I really am.

I completed a short questionnaire asking about my diet, lifestyle, the medical history of my family, my exercising routine and at the end of it, I was present my Q Score. The Q Score represents your relative risk of experiencing heart disease and illness by placing you in an imaginary queue of 100 people.

A score below 20 means that you should be seeking further assessment from your doctor, whereas a score of 60 or more indicates that you’re generally within healthy limits. Well, as you can see above I reached a Q Score of 41. This means that I am at medium risk, but can move down the queue by at least 19 places by making a couple of changes to my lifestyle. The graphic below shows a series of lifestyle factors that the health check looks at. It then measures at how much of a risk different factors put me.

Having a look at the diagram, you will see that the two main areas that put me at risk are my weight and my lack of exercise. After giving you an overview about where your main problems lie, Patient.co.uk helps you to develop a step by step program on how to improve your health. So over the next couple of weeks, I will try to lose some weight and squeeze in some light exercises to start with. To help me along the way, I have signed up to the free 12 week health optimisation program, which sends you weekly emails that help you keep on track of your achievements and offer advice on how to go about achieving your health goals.  I shall let you all know how I get on. Wish me luck!

Did you have a go yourself? What’s your score?

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but I am still determined to get healthier.