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.
Showing posts with label Body Mass Index. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Body Mass Index. Show all posts
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Body Mass Index (BMI): Are You at a Healthy Weight?
The body mass index, or BMI, helps clarify an important distinction between being overweight or being obese. If you weigh too much, you're obviously overweight. But if you have a very high proportion of body fat, you're obese. Based on your body mass index, your doctor or other health professional will classify your weight as healthy, overweight, or obese.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the BMI "describes body weight relative to height and is correlated with total body fat content in most adults". In almost all cases, this means that the BMI will accurately reflect your weight and proportion of body fat as a function of your height and weight when categorizing you as healthy, overweight or obese.
Calculating your approximate body mass index is relatively straightforward, although you'll probably need a calculator just to save time. To get your BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 703. Next, divide that result by your height in inches. Then divide that result by your height in inches one more time.
As an example, let's say you weigh 180 pounds and are 5 feet 10 inches tall.
Multiply 180 by 703 to get 126,540. Next, divide this by 70 (70 inches is the same as 5' 10") to get 1807.7. Now, divide 1807.7 by 70 one more time. The result -- 25.8-- is your approximate BMI or body mass index. If you don't have a calculator handy, you can get the same result using the free interactive BMI calculator.
If the above example sounds you, you might be surprised to learn that you're ever so slightly heavier than your doctor might like. A BMI from 18.5 up to 25 is considered healthy, from 25 up to 30 is classified as overweight, and 30 or higher is obese.
Generally, says the NHLBI, the higher a person's BMI, the greater the risk for health problems. In addition to causing your BMI to skyrocket, excess body fat is a well recognized health risk. Men and women with waist lines in excess of 40 and 35 inches, respectively, are much more at risk for health problems like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Like every rule of thumb, this one also has it exception. Body builders, for example, often have a body mass index above 25 and sometimes even above 30. In this case, however, the higher BMI reflects the fact that body builders have more muscle mass without having more fat.
Finally, there's still only one sure way to lower your BMI if you're overweight or obese: Eat less and exercise more. Your body will burn more calories than you eat and your body mass index will go down over time.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the BMI "describes body weight relative to height and is correlated with total body fat content in most adults". In almost all cases, this means that the BMI will accurately reflect your weight and proportion of body fat as a function of your height and weight when categorizing you as healthy, overweight or obese.
Calculating your approximate body mass index is relatively straightforward, although you'll probably need a calculator just to save time. To get your BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 703. Next, divide that result by your height in inches. Then divide that result by your height in inches one more time.
As an example, let's say you weigh 180 pounds and are 5 feet 10 inches tall.
Multiply 180 by 703 to get 126,540. Next, divide this by 70 (70 inches is the same as 5' 10") to get 1807.7. Now, divide 1807.7 by 70 one more time. The result -- 25.8-- is your approximate BMI or body mass index. If you don't have a calculator handy, you can get the same result using the free interactive BMI calculator.
If the above example sounds you, you might be surprised to learn that you're ever so slightly heavier than your doctor might like. A BMI from 18.5 up to 25 is considered healthy, from 25 up to 30 is classified as overweight, and 30 or higher is obese.
Generally, says the NHLBI, the higher a person's BMI, the greater the risk for health problems. In addition to causing your BMI to skyrocket, excess body fat is a well recognized health risk. Men and women with waist lines in excess of 40 and 35 inches, respectively, are much more at risk for health problems like Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Like every rule of thumb, this one also has it exception. Body builders, for example, often have a body mass index above 25 and sometimes even above 30. In this case, however, the higher BMI reflects the fact that body builders have more muscle mass without having more fat.
Finally, there's still only one sure way to lower your BMI if you're overweight or obese: Eat less and exercise more. Your body will burn more calories than you eat and your body mass index will go down over time.
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