BMI (body mass index), which is based on the height and weight of a person, is an inaccurate measure of body fat content and does not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences, say researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
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What is BMI What does it tell us about your weight?
“BMI is a calculation that uses a person’s height and weight to produce a number that assesses their weight category and whether they are at greater risk for disease, such as heart problems and diabetes,” said Samuel Saltz, DO, a bariatric surgeon at Banner Health Center in Fort Collins, CO.
Why is it important to know what your BMI is?
It’s a good way to gauge whether your weight is in healthy proportion to your height. In fact, knowing your BMI can help you – and your GP – determine any health risks you may face if it’s outside of the healthy range. Being overweight can lead to a range of chronic conditions including: Type 2 Diabetes.
Why does my BMI says I’m overweight when I’m not?
Your muscle mass makes up most of your weight BMI doesn’t account for body composition, which means it misses the difference between muscle mass and fat. or overweight based on their BMI alone.
Is the BMI a good indicator of health?
BMI is a reasonable indicator of body fat for both adults and children. Because BMI does not measure body fat directly, it should not be used as a diagnostic tool. Instead, BMI should be used as a measure to track weight status in populations and as a screening tool to identify potential weight problems in individuals.
What is a good BMI for my age?
For most adults, an ideal BMI is in the 18.5 to 24.9 range. For children and young people aged 2 to 18, the BMI calculation takes into account age and gender as well as height and weight. If your BMI is: below 18.5 – you’re in the underweight range.
What is the healthiest BMI?
- • Underweight (Below 18.5)
- • Healthy Weight (18.5 – 24.9)
- • Overweight (25.0 – 29.9)
- • Obesity (30.0 and Above)
What is an unhealthy BMI?
If your BMI is less than 18.5, it falls within the underweight range. If your BMI is 18.5 to 24.9, it falls within the normal or Healthy Weight range. If your BMI is 25.0 to 29.9, it falls within the overweight range. If your BMI is 30.0 or higher, it falls within the obese range.
Does BMI actually matter?
BMI is a useful tool for healthcare professionals to quickly identify health risks—for example, a person with a high BMI has a greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes—but your BMI alone doesn’t provide a detailed picture of your health.
What is the best BMI for a woman?
A healthy BMI for women falls between 18.5 and 24.9.
Can you have a high BMI and not be fat?
You can have a high BMI even if you have very little body fat, especially if you’re male and very muscular. It doesn’t take into account your waist circumference, which can be a good measure of your risk for certain diseases, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
How can you have a high BMI but low body fat?
How muscular you are: A few people have high BMIs but don’t have much body fat. Their muscle tissue pushes up their weight. An example: “A football player or a body builder who is very muscular. Their BMI shows up pretty high, and yet their body fat is actually pretty low,” Kahan says.
Why do we say goodbye to BMI?
The BMI is so revered as a standard that in the US the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has proposed people with higher BMIs should also have to shell out more for insurance premiums, since being overweight or obese can increase your risk for diabetes and heart disease, and is considered unhealthy.
What BMI is skinny?
Fat is what makes a person with a BMI of lower than 18.5 “underweight” or simply “skinny-fat.” In order to improve the BMI, the skinny-fat person can tone up and recompose his or her body to move into healthier BMI values.
Does BMI change with age?
BMI changes substantially with age. After about 1 year of age, BMI-for-age begins to decline and it continues falling during the preschool years until it reaches a minimum around 4 to 6 years of age. After 4 to 6 years of age, BMI-for-age begins a gradual increase through adolescence and most of adulthood.
How much should a 5 4 female weigh?
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute indicates that a healthy weight for a woman who is 5 feet, 4 inches tall ranges from 110–140 pounds with a BMI of 19–24.
Do thin people live longer?
In the first study, U.S. scientists found that slim people had the lowest risk of dying over a 15-year period — 12 percent for women and 20 percent for men. Meanwhile, obese men and women had the highest risk — 20 percent for women and 24 percent for men.
Do overweight people live longer?
Those who started adulthood as obese and continued to add weight had the highest mortality rate. People who start adulthood with a body mass index (BMI) in the normal range and move later in life to being overweight — but never obese — tend to live the longest, a new study suggests.
What foods to eat to lower your BMI?
- Aim for at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
- Try and choose whole grain cereal, pasta, rice, and bread.
- Avoid food that is high in sugar, like pastries, sweetened cereal, and soda or fruit-flavored drinks.
What is the healthiest waist size?
For your best health, your waist should be less than 40 inches around for men, and less than 35 inches for women, although it may vary depending on race or ethnicity.
How accurate is BMI if you are muscular?
A glob of muscle weighs about 18 percent more than the same size glob of fat. So, according to the BMI, the sprinter is more overweight than the sedentary person. But as I said earlier, a glob of muscle weighs about 18 percent more than the same size glob of fat, so this is clearly not an accurate statement.
Why is BMI better than weight alone?
Body Mass Index Is a Good Gauge of Body Fat The most basic definition of overweight and obesity is having too much body fat-so much so that it “presents a risk to health.” (1) A reliable way to determine whether a person has too much body fat is to calculate the ratio of their weight to their height squared.
Why the BMI is wrong?
More and more research shows that there are biological and genetic differences in the relationship between weight, muscle mass and disease risk among different groups of people. BMI does not account for that. Certain genetic factors can affect BMI accuracy because of their effect on weight distribution and muscle mass.
What is more accurate than BMI?
While BMI is a rough estimate of body fat, body fat percentage is a more accurate number. BMI, but not overfat. Likewise, a person of normal weight on the BMI scales may still be overfat and at risk of weight-related diseases.
What’s the BMI for 5 4 female?
Charts and online calculators There are also several online BMI calculators, such as this one on our website. This table shows us that a woman who is 5 ft. 4 in. tall is considered overweight (BMI is 25 to 29) if she weighs between about 145 and 169 pounds.