With all that has been talked about in these days, you may be wondering: "What is BMI?". There is no magic, there is no secret formula, although sometimes, the way it is spoken, sounds like a kind of mantra to lose weight and health. . BMI is not a meditation, an exercise or a diet plan, it is simply the measure of your body mass. Compare your weight and height, and reduce that proportion to a number. Depending on where your number is on the scale, it will tell you if you have a low weight for your height, overweight or obesity.
So what is BMI in general? BMI, or body mass index, is a tool to measure the body mass that was created at the beginning of the NINETEENTH century by Adolphe Quetelet. This is why you may sometimes see the BMI as the Quetelet index. Adolphe Quetelet was mathematician, statistician and astronomer, among other things. He developed the BMI while working in social physics. BMI is still used today with very few variations in its original invention.
What is BMI, specifically? BMI does not measure body fat, but compares a person's weight and height to estimate a healthy body weight for that person's height. It is widely used to determine if someone is overweight or technically obese. Although not the ultimate tool for diagnosing obesity or overweight, because it is not free from defects for certain body types, it is still used in the medical community.
The formula for BMI is simple: take its height in square meters (its height multiplies by itself) and then divide its weight into kilograms by that number. For example, if I'm 5 feet tall, that's about 1.5 meters. 1.5 squared (1.5 times 1.5) is equal to 2.5. If it weighs 120 pounds, that's about 54.5 kilograms. So I need to divide 54.5 by 2.5, which gives me a result of 21.8 as my BMI. So what does that number mean? A BMI of 18.5 or lower indicates that a person has a low weight. The normal weight range is 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight people will calculate a BMI from 25 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or more indicates obesity. Someone five feet tall that weighs 120 pounds falls within the normal weight range.
Where BMI fails is with extremely muscular people. It does not distinguish between muscle and fat, but uses total weight as a measure. So, according to BMI, bodybuilders are likely to measure as obese what is inaccurate. Most athletes, such as wrestlers, football players and any athlete with a large amount of lean muscle, will be measured as obese or overweight. But for most people, BMI is a fairly accurate measure of its low weight or overweight level.
Now that you know the formula, you know that BMI is as simple as a single mathematical problem and a single number. The next time you confront the question: "What is BMI?" You will know that there is no magic, it is simply a measure of a person's body weight compared to its height.
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