BMI - A Better Perspective on Body Fat

The BMI formula factors your height and weight to detect if you have excess body fat. BMI measurement is a better appraisal of fatness, as opposed to body weight alone, since it relates height to weight. For example, knowing a person weighs 200 pounds isn’t sufficient info to assess whether they are overweight. Factoring in a person’s height helps place their body weight into perspective: An individual who is 6-foot and 200 pounds may not be excessively fat, while another person who is 5-foot-8 and 200 pounds is more than in all likelihood to have extra body fat.

BMI and Health Assessment

Higher BMI numbers are connected with increased dangers of disease and death. Higher BMI numbers are connected with diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers. Studies has discovered that the lowest and highest BMIs are connected with the highest health risks. So BMI figures are categorized into classes meant to reflect the degree of jeopardy a person faces.

Those people with the lowest risks of disease seem to land in the 18.5 to 24.9 BMI scope, so they are regarded to be “normal.”

Wellness perils significantly increase with a BMI of 25 or more, so BMI ranks above 25 are broken into "overweight" and "obese".

Extremely high BMIs are associated to even larger perils of certain health perils. The “underweight” class is included because being too thin is also tied in with increased health perils.

BMI Classes - Overweight and Obese

Underweight <18.5
Normal 18.5 - 24.9
Overweight 25.0 - 29.9
Obesity 30.0 - 39.9
Extreme Obesity 40+

Possessing a BMI meter reading of 25+ is an indicant of being heavy, but not necessarily fat. A BMI of 30 or above is an indicant of carrying too much body fat.

People who are heavy may be that way because they are highly muscular. Muscular people may have a very low percentage of body fat, even though weighing more on a scale. So their BMI amount might not be a authentic way to specify if they have more body fat than they do. Beefed-up people, often have higher BMIs. But since they are fit and lean, they are not necessarily at magnified risk of certain health risks only because they sustain a higher BMI.

In certain illustrations BMI is not a sure indication of body fat.

Older people may carry more body fat and less muscularity, but their BMI total may stay along the low end of the BMI scale, indicating that they have less body fat than they do.

People under 5 feet may as well have BMI numbers totals that do not reflect their degree of accumulated fat. People who are sick or on medicinal drugs that cause exceptional quantities of edema, or swelling in the body, may weigh to a greater extent from surplus fluid collection. In this example, a larger BMI total may not suggest the absence or presence of body fat.

As a statistical tool utilizing 1000s of cases, BMI is functional when working with scientific data points to approximate the numbers of the overweight and obese and linked disease perils. For the individual, BMI is a functional way to monitor changes in weight over time.

Because BMI does not directly measure body fat, or where in the body fat is divided up, it may not be the best method of judging personal tiers of fatness and how it links to health risks. Waistline, and other factors should be taken into account when valuing a person’s overall health endangerments.

How to Check Your BMI

A laboratory is the proper setting to measure your BMI. Some laboratory body testing equipment such as underwater scales, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the Bod Pod measure body fat directly. There are other methods (although less reliable) to quantify body fat. Including skin fold testing or using a commercial body fat scale, some gyms offer up these body fat testing services.

The BMI screening is a improved mode to check out if you have surplus body fat. BMI associates height to weight and is a better judgment of fatness, as opposed to using body weight only.


Scientific research has determined that the lowest and highest BMIs are tied in with the highest health hazards such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

BMI numbers are classed into categories meant to interpret the degree of risk a person faces. A BMI of 25 appears to be the threshold where health peril really steps-up, and a BMI of 30 entails even heavier health perils. Extremely high BMIs (40+) are coupled to even more grievous dangers of certain health hazards. The BMI “underweight” category is part of the chart because being too trim is also attached with raised wellness perils. Having to take the time to get your BMI appraised may be an unreasonable or overpriced proposal for some people, but there are alternatives such as skin fold measuring, that are not as correct, but less costly or free and are accessible at local health clubs.