Mindbody Fitness - An Overall Fitness Approach

In the Part -1 , we learned about what is Body Mass Index (BMI), how BMI calculation is done and history of BMI. In this part we will learn about the significance of BMI as a body fat indicator and limitations of BMI. Importance of Measuring BMI BMI as a health indicator has been discussed a lot in the medical community. Though, it is measured in numbers, yet it is considered just as an indicator. BMI is often used for risk assessment for general population.  Numerous research studies have concluded that BMI helps to detect health issues at an early stage and can be very helpful to prevent fatal diseases. A body mass index in the low range signals that you could be malnourished. Maybe your body isn’t properly absorbing nutrients or maybe you’re just not getting enough calories to support your activity level.   As a rule of thumb, as a person's BMI increases or decreases after a certain limits, the person's risk of having some certain disease increases. Studies

The concept of Body Mass Index (BMI) is very simple. A ratio of your height and weight are used to calculate your BMI. It came out as an invaluable tool for identifying and tracking population trends in weight. People also try to relate it with the measure of body fat and as a way to help define overweightness and obesity. While it as an indicator of body fatness, it is not the best tool to tell about the body fat. BMI has many limitations in the assessment of the individual as it does not take into account the distribution of body fat. We will learn about BMI origin, calculations , limitations and how we can use BMI to maintain a good health.

To determine if you're at a healthy weight, enter the following information and calculate your body mass index (BMI). BMI Calculator BMI Categories: Underweight = <18.5 Normal weight = 18.5–24.9  Overweight = 25–29.9  Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater