For some, the need to lose weight is clear. Those whose body weight places them into the obese or morbidly obese categories are well aware that they are carrying too many pounds. But what about the borderline overweight? Is that ten pounds over the ideal weight raising your risk of health complications? Are you just 'big-boned'? How do you decide if you really need to lose weight - and how much you need to lose?
Doctors have a number of different ways to measure the need to lose weight. Long gone are the years when they relied on an insurance company chart of 'ideal weights'. The most commonly used measure is the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI measures your weight relative to your height. It is generally an accurate representation of muscle-to-fat ratio, though there are some limitations.
1. It may overestimate the BMI of an athletic person, because muscle is denser and weighs more than fat.
2. It may underestimate the BMI of an older person, or others who have low muscle mass.
There are many BMI calculators available online that will allow you to check your own BMI. The table for determining risk factors associated with obesity is:
Below 18.5 - Underweight
18.5 - 24.9 - Normal
25.0 - 29.9 - Overweight
30.0 and up - Obese
If your BMI is above 25.0, your doctor or other medical professional can advise you on the best weight loss plan for you. You should know that there are great benefits to losing even a moderate amount of weight. Some of those include:
* Lowering your risk of diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, a weight loss of as little as 10 pounds can decrease the chances of pre-diabetes developing into diabetes by 58%.
* Lower your risk of heart disease. The American Heart Association states that coronary problems are directly correlated to weight. By losing weight to bring your BMI to within normal ranges, you significantly lower your risk of developing heart problems.
* Reduce your risk of arthritis and pain from arthritis. A number of forms of arthritis are related to weight. Losing weight substantially decreases the strain that additional weight places you your knees, hips, back and ankles.
Are you motivated to get started? Here are three ways that you can start losing weight today:
Get active.
If you do nothing different in your life but exercise for one half hour daily, you will lose 5-7% of your body weight per year.
Cut out white breads and sugars.
Substitute whole grains for refined flours and sugars, and you'll automatically reduce the number of calories that you consume daily.
Eat more fresh vegetables.
Fresh vegetables, especially raw, are a significant source of many of the vitamins and minerals that your body needs daily. They're high in nutrition, while low in calories. By increasing the amount of fresh vegetables that you eat and reducing the amount of processed, refined foods, you'll cut calories and carbohydrates significantly.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
What is BMI: The Truth Revealed
With all the talk about it these days, you might be wondering, “What is BMI?” There's no magic to it, no secret formula, even though sometimes the way it's talked about it sounds like some sort of mantra for weight loss and health. BMI isn't a meditation or an exercise or diet plan, it's simply the measure of your body mass. It compares your weight and height, and boils that ratio down to a number. Depending where your number is on the scale, it tells you if you're underweight for your height, overweight, or obese.
So what is BMI, in general? BMI, or body mass index, is a tool of body mass measurement that was created in the early 1800s by Adolphe Quetelet. This is why sometimes you might see BMI referred to as the Quetelet index. Adolphe Quetelet was mathematician, statistician, and an astronomer, among other things. He developed the BMI while working on social physics. The BMI is still used today with very few variations on his original invention.
What is BMI, specifically? BMI doesn't measure body fat, but instead compares a person's weight and height to estimate a healthy body weight for that person's height. It's widely used to determine if someone is technically overweight or obese. Though it's the not the final tool in diagnosing obesity or overweight, because it's not without its flaws for certain body types, it's still in use in the medical community.
The formula for BMI is simple: Take your height in meters squared (your height times itself) and then divide your weight in kilograms by that number. For example, if I'm 5 feet tall, that's about 1.5 meters. 1.5 squared (1.5 times 1.5) equals 2.5. If I weigh 120 pounds, that's about 54.5 kilograms. So I need to divide 54.5 by 2.5 which gives me a result of 21.8 as my BMI. So what does that number mean? A BMI of 18.5 or below indicates that an individual is underweight. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight people will calculate a BMI of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity. Someone five feet tall weighing 120 pounds falls into the normal weight range.
Where BMI fails is with extremely muscular people. It doesn't distinguish between muscle and fat, instead using total weight as the measure. So according to the BMI, bodybuilders are likely to measure as obese which is inaccurate. Most athletes like wrestlers, footballs players and any athletes with a large amount of lean muscle are going to measure as overweight or obese. But for most people, BMI is a fairly accurate measure of their level of underweight or overweight.
Now that you know the formula, you know that BMI is as simple as a single math problem, and a single number. Next time you're faced with the question, “What is BMI?” you'll know there's no magic to it, it's simply a measure of a person's body weight compared to his or her height.
So what is BMI, in general? BMI, or body mass index, is a tool of body mass measurement that was created in the early 1800s by Adolphe Quetelet. This is why sometimes you might see BMI referred to as the Quetelet index. Adolphe Quetelet was mathematician, statistician, and an astronomer, among other things. He developed the BMI while working on social physics. The BMI is still used today with very few variations on his original invention.
What is BMI, specifically? BMI doesn't measure body fat, but instead compares a person's weight and height to estimate a healthy body weight for that person's height. It's widely used to determine if someone is technically overweight or obese. Though it's the not the final tool in diagnosing obesity or overweight, because it's not without its flaws for certain body types, it's still in use in the medical community.
The formula for BMI is simple: Take your height in meters squared (your height times itself) and then divide your weight in kilograms by that number. For example, if I'm 5 feet tall, that's about 1.5 meters. 1.5 squared (1.5 times 1.5) equals 2.5. If I weigh 120 pounds, that's about 54.5 kilograms. So I need to divide 54.5 by 2.5 which gives me a result of 21.8 as my BMI. So what does that number mean? A BMI of 18.5 or below indicates that an individual is underweight. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight people will calculate a BMI of 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity. Someone five feet tall weighing 120 pounds falls into the normal weight range.
Where BMI fails is with extremely muscular people. It doesn't distinguish between muscle and fat, instead using total weight as the measure. So according to the BMI, bodybuilders are likely to measure as obese which is inaccurate. Most athletes like wrestlers, footballs players and any athletes with a large amount of lean muscle are going to measure as overweight or obese. But for most people, BMI is a fairly accurate measure of their level of underweight or overweight.
Now that you know the formula, you know that BMI is as simple as a single math problem, and a single number. Next time you're faced with the question, “What is BMI?” you'll know there's no magic to it, it's simply a measure of a person's body weight compared to his or her height.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Tips About the BMI Index
The BMI Index is a tool that was invented in the early 1800s. While there aren't many health and fitness tools that were created in the eartly 1800s that we're still using today just as they were, the BMI index is relatively unchanged in almost 200 years. It's still a popular tool used to figure out if a person's weight is healthy. The BMI simply compares your weight to your height and decides if you're underweight, a normal weight, overweight or obese. Most of us can look in the mirror or notice whether or not we're having to squeeze into our pants, and determine this without the use of numbers and calculations. But that doesn't stop the BMI from being widely used by doctors, and worse, insurance companies.
Insurance companies frequently use a person's BMI to determine if the person is a risk to insure. Health insurance costs can be higher for those who have a BMI in the overweight or obese range, and life insurance can be higher or it can be refused completely. While it's within these companies' rights to refuse to insure anyone, the use of the BMI index to make that determination represents flawed thinking, unless other factors are considered, too.
The BMI Index determines a person's BMI by dividing their weight by their height squared (their height times itself). When kilograms and meters are converted into pounds and feet or inches, the formula changes very slightly, but the resulting BMI number is very close the number obtained by using kilograms and meters. For most people, the BMI Index is a decent measure of their weight in proportion to their height. But for some, it comes up with a label that's far off.
Consider a championship bodybuilder. He's one of the best in the world in the lightweight division, at 5' 3” and 154 pounds. The man is solid muscle, and he's in amazing physical shape. The BMI Index says he's overweight and needs to lose weight. When you take his height times itself and divide that into his weight, he comes up with a BMI of almost 27. The cut-off for normal weight is 24.9. Clearly, he's not overweight, with barely an ounce of body fat anywhere. But an insurance company won't care about that, they could refuse him insurance based on his 'high-risk' BMI.
Once you've used the formula to figure your number on the BMI Index, you can see where you rank as far as healthy weight. A person is underweight with BMI of 18.5 or below. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. From 25 to 29.9 indicates that you're overweight. And anyone with a BMI of 30 or over is considered obese. Try plugging in some professional athletes' heights and weights, and see how many are classified obese with the BMI Index.
This makes it clear that while it's a valuable tool, common sense, appearance and body fat must be considered along with the BMI Index to determine a person's ideal weight.
Insurance companies frequently use a person's BMI to determine if the person is a risk to insure. Health insurance costs can be higher for those who have a BMI in the overweight or obese range, and life insurance can be higher or it can be refused completely. While it's within these companies' rights to refuse to insure anyone, the use of the BMI index to make that determination represents flawed thinking, unless other factors are considered, too.
The BMI Index determines a person's BMI by dividing their weight by their height squared (their height times itself). When kilograms and meters are converted into pounds and feet or inches, the formula changes very slightly, but the resulting BMI number is very close the number obtained by using kilograms and meters. For most people, the BMI Index is a decent measure of their weight in proportion to their height. But for some, it comes up with a label that's far off.
Consider a championship bodybuilder. He's one of the best in the world in the lightweight division, at 5' 3” and 154 pounds. The man is solid muscle, and he's in amazing physical shape. The BMI Index says he's overweight and needs to lose weight. When you take his height times itself and divide that into his weight, he comes up with a BMI of almost 27. The cut-off for normal weight is 24.9. Clearly, he's not overweight, with barely an ounce of body fat anywhere. But an insurance company won't care about that, they could refuse him insurance based on his 'high-risk' BMI.
Once you've used the formula to figure your number on the BMI Index, you can see where you rank as far as healthy weight. A person is underweight with BMI of 18.5 or below. The normal weight range is from 18.5 to 24.9. From 25 to 29.9 indicates that you're overweight. And anyone with a BMI of 30 or over is considered obese. Try plugging in some professional athletes' heights and weights, and see how many are classified obese with the BMI Index.
This makes it clear that while it's a valuable tool, common sense, appearance and body fat must be considered along with the BMI Index to determine a person's ideal weight.
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