Body Mass Index is the tool with which obesity can be tracked at a population level. It is easy to ascertain your health with BMI and hence this measure is used often by medical experts to calculate your body’s fat levels. Depending on your weight range, your weight can be categorized into several stages namely severely underweight, underweight, normal weight, overweight, obesity class I, obesity class II and obesity class III.
How To Calculate BMI From Your Weight?
BMI is calculated by measuring your weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. BMI is the window through which your medical expert measures your health. BMI is used as a window through which your medical experts analyze the state of your health. Your medical experts determine the status of your health using your weight and height and estimate your body’s composition.
BMI helps in understanding if you are underweight or overweight and helps determine your health condition with ease.
Although BMI helps determine your obesity level it is important to understand that it is not a one size fits all tool and hence it is important to consult with your medical expert who will determine if your weight is healthy or not on the basis of several factors like your ethnicity, muscularity and so on.
The body composition of every woman is different and hence the BMI range also varies differently for women and hence it is important to consult with your medical expert to determine your health accurately. For instance the healthy BMI for a black, white and Hispanic woman lies in the range of 18.5 and 24.9.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that for a woman who is over 60 inches , the normal BMI range would be 110-149 pounds. For Asian women , when the BMI range is over 27.5 they are said to be overweight. The normal and healthy BMI range when you are pregnant is 18.5 – 24.9.
Although BMI is an indicator of your fat distribution , the fat distribution and muscle mass varies for every woman and even if two women have the same BMI their fat distribution might be different and hence it is important to consider several external factors before deciding if you fall within a healthy BMI range.
For instance, Mexican American women have more than 5% excess body fat and a large waist circumference as compared to other women even if the BMI for both categories of women is the same.
The main problem associated with BMI is that it does not factor in your muscle mass and body fat and hence it is difficult to ascertain the exact health condition using BMI. For instance if you are an athlete, your muscle mass will be higher and the healthy range of BMI will vary and the normal range will no longer be applicable for you but since BMI does not consider muscle mass, it will not be an açurate indicator of your health.
BMI is an easy and inexpensive measure that helps determine if you are healthy. Your muscle tissue is dense as compared to your fat tissue but BMI does not take into account your muscle mass and hence is not an accurate measurement of your health.
Similarly even if you fall within a normal BMI range but have high levels of body fat , you will have a higher health risk despite your BMI being normal. This is mostly the case for postmenopausal women who have a higher body fat percentage but a normal BMI range and hence it is important to consider other measurements like waist to hip ratio, waist circumference and so on to have a clear picture of your health.
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BMI is the starting point to determine if you are healthy. Although BMI is not an accurate measure of obesity and varies on the basis of several external factors , the healthy range of BMI for women is 18.5-24.9. If you are below 18.5 , you are said to be underweight, and if you are between 25-29.9, you are said to be overweight and if you are over 29.9 , you are said to be obese. If you are pregnant, the normal Weight range lies between 25-35 pounds.
