Why Should You Know What Your Body Mass Index Is?

Body mass index is a measure of excess fat based on your weight in relation to your height and applies to most adult women and men aged twenty and over. For children aged two and above, body mass index percentile is the best evaluation of body fat.

Here are a few key points about BMI. BMI is a measure of relative size based on the mass and stature of a person. Body mass index is a straightforward, inexpensive and non-invasive measure of excess fat. Factors like age, sex, ethnicity and muscle tissue are not accounted for in BMI.

For adults twenty years and older, body mass index is translated by utilizing standard weight status categories which are the same for all ages, and for men as well as women. For kids and adolescents between two to twenty years old, body mass index is interpreted relative to a kid's age and sex.

Body mass index is a fair indicator of excess fat for both adults and kids. Since body mass index does not measure body fat directly, it should not be utilized as a diagnostic tool. Body mass index should be used as perhaps a measure to monitor weight as a screening tool to determine possible weight problems in people.

Other measures of excess fat, like skin fold thickness, electric impedance, under water weighing and double energy X ray absorptiometry are possibly more accurate than BMI.

Body mass index is used as a screening tool to signal whether an individual is underweight, overweight, obese or of a healthful weight for their height. If a person's body mass index is way above the healthy body mass index range, their health threats might increase significantly.

Excess fat leads to heart diseases, it raises blood pressure levels, blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels and lowers levels of good cholesterol. Hence it is necessary to know one's BMI.

The health hazards associated with an increasing body mass index are continuous, and the interpretation of body mass index grading in relation to risk might differ for different populations.