![]() BMI accounts for height, which is an important factor when determining a healthy weight for an individual. Rather, it was to be used as a method for analyzing population information and drawing conclusions about access to resources and health for a larger data pool. While Quetelet may not have been a doctor, he was a statistician and sociologist, and he insisted that the data collected for different BMI categories was not an accurate representation of an individual person’s health and fitness. Here are just a few of the reasons that BMI can be misleading, and how you can adjust your healthcare plan to better fit your needs. Can BMI be misleading?ĭespite its ubiquity, the BMI index has faced criticism as a tool for measuring body fat and determining wellness. According to the guideline, the categorization can be used to provide more informed diagnoses and better healthcare support and guidance. It works like this: Once your body mass index is measured based on height and weight, you’re categorized into one of four quadrants - underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese. Since the 1980s, it’s been used by international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) as a standard for measuring obesity worldwide. The BMI formula was introduced in the 19th century by a mathematician and sociologist named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, and it was initially designed for use in larger population studies and to determine the rate of obesity in prosperous western regions. The healthy BMI range varies more for children and adolescents, as they grow at different rates, but the range is consistent for adult BMI measurements. Simply put, BMI value measures the level of body fat a person has based on their height and weight. While BMI was a useful tool for providing health information in the past, there are several things to keep in mind when you measure your body weight and discuss weight loss options with your healthcare provider. These factors go well beyond the ratio of body fat to height and may include genetics, ethnicity, family history, and a whole lot more. An estimation of body fat using the skinfold method would be a more accurate choice.But anyone who has struggled on their weight loss or weight gain journey knows that there are many factors involved in determining our weight. If you are a person with an athletic or muscular build, do not use BMI as the only method to assess your body composition. Because muscle weighs more than fat, those who have well-developed muscles typically appear overweight or obese according to the BMI reference chart. However, since body weight (and not percent body fat) is used in determining BMI, there may be problems when using BMI to assess people who are heavily muscled (such as body builders) or who have an athletic body type. The table above provides established BMI norms based on various categories of health and fitness.įor most people, BMI is a quick and easy way to assess body composition, which is why it is so commonly used. Thus, working toward weight loss if you are overweight or obese can have a profound positive effect on your health. Obesity-related diseases include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and stroke. Understanding your body composition is valuable because a person's level of body fat is directly correlated with health outcomes. This assessment compares your body weight to your height to come up with a value that indicates whether you are underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. A frequently used index to assess a person's body composition (or amount of body fat) is called the body mass index, or BMI.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |