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Body mass index is the number given to the relationship between your height and your weight. The reason behind having this sort of a measure is that people with different heights should have different ideal weights; not all women should be of one weight and all men of another weight. Someone who is six feet tall will be proportionately heavier than someone who is five feet tall. The BMI measure is an attempt to give adults an accurate idea of what their healthy weight for their height should be.
There are calculators that you can use online to calculate your BMI for you; all you have to know is that the result is a relationship between your height and your weight. What you then have to do is interpret your BMI. The current distinctions between being overweight and being obese are set for adults at 25 and 30, respectively. What this means is that if your BMI is 24, you are not overweight, but if your BMI is 26, you are considered to be overweight. If your BMI is 31, you are considered to be obese. Of course, the fact that the BMI system is numerical means that your BMI falls on a continuum, thus, one person with a BMI of 26 is considered to be less overweight than another overweight person with a BMI of 29. If your BMI is under 18.5, you are considered to be underweight.
An important thing to take into consideration when calculating and interpreting your BMI is that the percentage of fat and muscle are not taken into account. As you may know, muscle weighs significantly more than fat does. What this means is that if your percentage of body fat is very high, then your BMI might be within the ‘normal’ range, but you might still be considered overweight by a doctor even if your BMI technically puts you in the healthy range of BMIs. On the other hand, if your BMI is higher than you thought it would be because you’ve never thought of yourself as being overweight, or even anywhere near to be overweight, the problem could be linked to your muscles mass. If you have a very developed muscular structure with little fat on it, your BMI might fall in the overweight range even if you are not overweight.
Taking the body’s proportion of muscle and fat into account is one of the important factors when considering overall health. This is one factor that the BMI does not consider. Another important factor is the circumference of your waist. Having a waist measurement that is very large in comparison to your height is another important factor to take into consideration. A healthy weight is determined by height, muscle and fat percentages, and the measurement of the waist.
If you’re really concerned about getting an accurate idea about just how healthy your weight is, you should take more than your BMI into consideration. You’ll want to use the BMI as a starting point, then get evaluated for muscle and fat percentages, take your waist into consideration, and, last but not least, consider the weight that you were in your last year of high school. All adults experience weight gain as part of the natural aging process, but gaining a disproportionate amount of weight in comparison to your senior year weight is a sign that your weight might be getting out of control. Some doctors recommend trying to stay within ten pounds of their weight on their 18th birthday, but for a lot of people that is a pipe dream. However, do try to keep it in mind as a general idea of where your weight should be.