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What is the Body Mass Index?
Your Body Mass Index (BMI) is a calculation that will put your measurements on a scale that will tell you if you are underweight, a healthy weight, overweight or obese. It is a simple calculation that is as follows:
Who should use it?
You would think a scale that is as well known as BMI should be adaptable to anyone. Unfortunately not, as you will see further on (as we delve into the world of BMI - Beeble) that in fact it is really quite basic and its uses are too specific. As a guide it can be useful especially for people who lead a sedentary lifestyle or at the very most not overly active. It will give this group of people a very good idea whether they are in a healthy weight range.
Is it a good calculator?
Where it starts to fail is when the same calculation is applied to very active people; for example regular sports players, bodybuilders and other fitness fanatics. This group of people will tend to have a larger muscle mass than the non active group. If you look at the calculation you will see that it asks for your height and weight but it does not have the capability to distinguish between muscle and fat. Therefore it is highly possible that someone with a fair amount of muscle could be classed as overweight and even obese when they are clearly not. Their weight to height ratio could be the same as someone who is very overweight through an excess of fat but their body types would look very different. A pound of body fat is roughly 18% larger in size than a pound of muscle so the person with more muscle would more than likely look slimmer than the person with more body fat.
Beeble’s opinion
It is a basic method to quickly check if you are in a healthy weight range or not and is far more beneficial to sedentary people. It is not a good measure for everyone and is also not a good measure to see improvement in the body after taking up a new diet and some form of exercise. This is because if you exercise it is fact that you will increase your muscle mass as well as reducing your body fat. The end result being that your size will change but it may not show on the BMI.
Is there a better way to measure body changes?
Of course there is! It is called body fat % and is the more superior way to measure and monitor your progress during a lifestyle change. You see this way you are just measuring the fat on the body and this will tell you how trim you are. The higher the percentage of fat on your body, above and beyond a healthy level, the more prone you become to heart disease and other obesity related illnesses. When you begin to exercise and diet (a healthy, wholefood diet! – Beeble) you will notice that you body fat % will reduce and you will be able to monitor this with a body fat testing kit.
There are several different methods of self testing you can do. The first and considered the best are the body fat callipers or pinch test. With these you take 4 to 6 measurements around key points on your body make a note of each measurement add them up and find your body fat % on a supplied chart. The second and maybe slightly less respected is the electric scales with body fat % option on them. You put in your sex, age and sometimes build type and then stand on them. They send a very small (you can’t feel it – Beeble) electric current up one leg and measure the time it takes to come back. From this it is able to work out your fat %.
Which of these two would I advise you to get?
The callipers are more effective and give a more accurate result if you know what you are doing or have someone to teach you. It is possible to measure yourself and get readings that are way off and completely different each time. It is also very difficult to do it on your own. With the scales, they are not as accurate but they are consistent which is very important. This means that it can’t give false results due to human error but it may give a measurement that is slightly off. This means that it is always going to be off by the same amount and therefore still means that it is a good monitor of change. If you weigh yourself for the first time and then a month later measure yourself again it will show you the change, probably more accurately than the self measure callipers.
My advice; get your body fat % measured at your doctors or gym by someone who knows what they are doing. This way you will know exactly how to do it and what your measurement really is. From there buy the scales and measure your progress that way.
Tips & Advice
If you would like to know what you BMI is then please click here.
If you would like to buy yourself some scales or callipers to get a more accurate measure of your body’s development then please enter the term “body fat callipers” or “body fat scales” in the search section of our Mini-mall link below (feed readers will have to visit the blog - Beeble).
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