What is BMI? BMI stands for body mass index and is a ratio of height to weight based on sex and sometimes age. It’s just one quick measure of your overall health. BMI is a chart with your height at the side, weight in the middle, and the corresponding BMI at the top of the chart. The BMI formula is (weight in pounds x 703) / (height in inches x height in inches). Putting the information on a chart cuts through calculation time and makes it easy for doctors to take a quick assessment. It’s not a stand-alone test and requires other information.
The amount of muscle you have makes a difference.
If a patient is a bodybuilder or other muscular person, the doctor might make a rash assessment of obesity before seeing the patient. That’s because muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue. If two people were the same height and weight, but one was muscular and the other wasn’t, the muscular person would look thinner. The muscular person would probably be healthier than the one who wasn’t. The healthcare professional would know the difference when they saw them. Insurance companies often require a photograph of a person with a high BMI due to muscle tissue to avoid paying more for life insurance. A large body frame, dense bones, pregnancy, and age can skew BMI.
There are better ways to identify health risks than BMI.
A waist measurement is a better indication of overall health. For men, a waist larger than 40.2 inches has a greater chance of diabetes. The measurement for women indicating the same is 34.6 inches. That’s because fat around the waist is visceral fat. It’s the most dangerous type and the most difficult to lose. It crowds the organs and causes inflammation.
A high BMI leads the doctor to explore health issues by taking other tests.
A high BMI may be the reason for breathing problems or sleep apnea, which can lead to COPD, heart disease, and diabetes. It can indicate a risk for arthritis, liver disease, some types of cancer, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, too. It’s not a good indicator of the health of children or seniors. Doctors use it as a place to start and other factors, like personal observation.
- One study showed that BMI wasn’t a good indicator of cardiac health. It didn’t indicate whether the patient would have a healthy cardiometabolic profile containing blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
- A better indicator of health is the RFM—relative fat mass index. It uses the formula for men of 64-(20 x height/waist circumference) and women 76-(20 x height/waist circumference).
- Better indicators of body density are MRI scans and underwater weighing. The problem is that they are too costly for widespread use.
- The range for normal is between 18 and 24. For overweight individuals, the BMI number range is from 25 to 29. The range between 30 and 39 is obese and 40 and higher is extremely obese.
For more information, contact us today at Rising Fitness Gym