Calculating Your Body Mass Index Is Your Health At Risk

Calculating Your Body Mass Index; Is Your Health At Risk?

Summary: Body Mass Index is an indicator of surplus body fat and has since replaced the height-weight charts. It is used to assess a persons level of health risk.

health, overweight, body fat

Article Body: Physical health can be measured (with certain exceptions) through the appropriateness of a persons weight to his height; where the body weight refers to the measure of ones heaviness and the height is the measure of his tallness. For instance, a woman measuring ft high (. m), with a medium body frame should weigh between lbs to lbs (. kg to . kg) to be considered healthy.

Another example: a man standing ft in (. m) tall, with a large body frame is healthy if he is weighing between lbs to lbs (. kg to . kg). Otherwise, if their weight is lower than the desired body weight for their height, they are considered underweight. And if, in turn, their weight is higher than the desired body weight for their height, they are said to be overweight.

Body Mass Index is an indicator of surplus body fat and has since replaced the height-weight charts as mentioned in the above examples. It is a mathematical ratio of height to weight that is used to determine body composition (or body fat percentage) to assess a persons level of health risk. Calculating BMI is as follows:

BMI = Weight (in kg) or BMI = Weight (in lbs) x Height (in m) Height (in inches) For example, the calculation for someone weighing kg ( lbs) and . m ( in) tall is: BMI = = . or BMI = x = .

People with a BMI of . to . are considered overweight, and people with a BMI of or above are considered obese. Thus, from the example above, a person weighing kg and is . m tall is obese. A high BMI assumes a higher percentage of body fat, which places a person at greater risk for developing chronic diseases and other serious illnesses.

BMI Weight Category and under Underweight - Normal (Healthy) - Overweight and above Obese Body weight categories according to BMI

However, for some people, the BMI is not a reliable indication of health. A highly muscled individual who is very fit and healthy may have a somewhat heavy body weight because muscles pack on a lot of pounds. This person may have a high BMI that improperly puts him or her in the overweight or obese categories. Likewise, thin individuals who have a low body weight with very little muscle and a higher percentage of fat may have a normal BMI, which would be an incorrect indication of healthiness. If you are overweight or obese according to the calculations shown here it is imperative that you undertake a weight loss and fitness program and start bringing that weight down. Remember that for every pounds that you are over your ideal weight, the risks to your health increase and for every pounds that you lose bringing you closer to your ideal weight, the risks to your health decrease.