Your Body Mass Index is a crude measurement of your body weight in reference to your height:
- + BMI < 20 May be associated with health problems with some people
- + BMI = 20-25 Good weight for most people
- + BMI = 25-27 May lead to health problems for some people
- + BMI > 27 Increasing risk of developing health problems
Being underweight or overweight are recognized risk factors for many diseases, namely hypertension,
diabetes, hyperlipidemias, and perhaps certain types of cancers.
Weight is not the problem, body fat is. For example,
look at the many athletes and weekend warriors that pack around a high percentage of lean body mass.
Sure, they are heavy and may even flunk the standardized BMI test above, but they are healthier and have
a lower likelihood of nearly all the diseases connected to obesity.
If you are more muscular than the average Joe, you should focus on your body fat numbers and ditch the BMI measurements. It’s
hauling around too much body fat that’s detrimental to your health and can lead to different cancers,
increased cholesterol and blood pressure, and even diabetes.
Simply by lowering your body fat, you can decrease your odds of developing these conditions. For that
reason, we believe that
body composition is a much
better and accurate measurement than the Body Mass Index. However, the BMI tool above is still a
variable tool for those who are of average size and build.
