BMI (body mass index)
Are You Desirable?
In the past,
the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company tables have
been used to define desirable weight, that is: a
weight associated with the lowest mortality rate for
a given age and weight. The problem is it doesn't
account for body fat and muscle mass, which can vary
greatly from one person to the next.
Another
Term: Body Mass Index
No longer
does a simple excess of weight as defined by
height/weight tables suffice to define obesity
because an excess of weight does not necessarily
reflect the degree of excess of fat. For example,
because muscle mass weighs more than fat tissue,
some very muscular athletes may weigh more than
non-athletes of the same age and height and appear
obese on the scale, while they really are not,
because their fat mass is small.
A more accurate reflection of body fat is given by
the Body Mass Index. The BMI can be calculated
easily from the following formula:
BMI =(Weight in kg /Height in meters²)
The
table below calculates this for you and provides
body weights in pounds, height in feet and inches,
and its corresponding BMI.
A Desirable
body weight and BMI
These
calculations can provide a very good estimate of
whether a person's excess fat puts them at risk for
their health
an "Overweight " body corresponds to a BMI
of:
25.0 for both men and women
"Obesity" corresponds to a BMI of:
25.5 or more for men
26.0 for
women
Both of
these measurements of BMI are associated with
greater health risk.
If you
have a BMI below 25.0, BMI is not associated closely
enough to actual body fat to tell if an individual
is at an optimum body weight or not. To determine
what a desirable weight for you would be, consider
your percentage of body fat (get it measured),
consider what weight makes you feel and look your
best, and discuss with your health care
professional.
Chart
is courtesy of Carolyn Classick-Kohn,MS,RD (A-Personaldietitian.com)