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What You Need to Know about Body Mass Index

Updated: Dec 5, 2019




Are you looking to measure your obesity? Body mass index or BMI would be an effective tool. BMI is a number calculated based on your weight and height. It is easy and convenient to calculate since you don’t need to be in a clinical setting or use expensive equipment to measure your BMI. All you need is to know your weight and height.


But what is BMI? BMI is not a measure of body fat. Instead, it is an indicative number that gauges a person’s weight depending on the BMI index. Therefore, BMI will help you understand whether you are overweight. Since BMI calculation does not include specific bone weight, fat weight or muscle, you cannot accurately calculate body fat.


Calculating your BMI is, however, easy and convenient. You just need to enter your weight and height in a BMI calculator and is available online. A BMI calculator will indicate if you are underweight, overweight, normal weight or obese. While BMI may be considered to calculate body fat, it has some limitations.


First, muscular people who engage in regular muscle-building activities like weight lifting, athletics, and swimming may be classified as obese. While their BMI index might indicate they are obese, their body fat would be lower. Also, the BMI calculation does not take care of a person’s age. Because of this, the BMI index includes both older and young adults. Therefore, a senior citizen might have excess body fat but still fall in the normal bracket. This is due to natural muscle wastage that comes with aging.


On the other hand, men are usually muscular than women, while women have more fat than men. When calculating BMI, therefore, women should use a calculator for women. However, BMI tests remain an important tool in calculating body fat for normal people in a sedentary lifestyle.


BMI is also useful in various ways. First, it helps in identifying health issues associated with a person’s weight, whether underweight or overweight. Depending on your fitness level and activity, BMI would vary as shown on the BMI index bracket. However, knowing your BMI score is useful in your holistic healthy living plan. That will include healthy eating regimes and regular exercise. Find out how to compare salaries in New York.


However, BMI alone cannot be used to provide an assessment of potential health risks. However, other measurements such as chest size and waist size are used to give a holistic overview of your health, as well as potential risks you are exposed to. Read more about home accounting.


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