Your Body Mass Index

Main page Fashion Blog Fahion News Fahion Talk Fahion Articles Fashion World

Your Body Mass Index

The BMI, short form for Body Mass Index is a useful tool used to assess overweight and obesity. This is also an excellent tool for evaluating changes in the body weight over some period of time. The concept of BMI evolved from the weight-for-height tables, which was in use for several years. Like the weight tables based on height, BMI has its limitations since it does not estimate body fat content or muscle directly. Body mass index is calculated by dividing weight in pounds by height in inches squared and multiplied by the number 703.

Since BMI is not a very good measure of body fat content, two persons with identical body mass index may not have the same body fat. For example an athlet with a large muscle mass and low percentage of body fat content might have identical BMI as someone who has more body fat content. However, even with the disadvantage mentioned, a BMI of thirty or more generally indicates excess body fat.

The BMI chart provided serves as a useful standard to evaluate your body mass index. It's very easy to use this table to evaluate your BMI to check you position in the general population, First, look for your weight on the bottom of the graph. Go straight up along that line from that point until you come to he line that corresponds your height expressed in inches. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 suggests a person is overweight. A person having a BMI of 30 or more is considered to be obese. If you find your BMI to be outside normal range, you are suggested to discuss this finding with your health care provider.