You've all heard about it but what is it and how useful is it?
This week I thought I’d talk about different indicators/ measurements used to assess health risks. Firstly I thought I’d address BMI as this is a popular tool used by GP’s and Family doctors. Body Mass Index is a measurement of the ratio of your weight and height.
The medical profession often use BMI as a tool for determining whether an individual is a healthy weight or has health risk due to their weight. It’s a simple and inexpensive tool to use.
It is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. So if you weigh in at 56kg and your height is 1.65m your BMI would be 20. You can find various BMI calculators on line and the NHS in the UK has one that you can choose either imperial or metric measurements. You’ll find a calculator on the British Heart Foundation website, plus the American Heart Association and I’m sure the same from many other organisations in your country.
It should be noted that BMI isn’t foolproof. It can tell you whether you are carrying too much weight for your height, but not whether you are carrying too much fat. It doesn’t differentiate between muscle, fat and bone. It also doesn’t take into account age, gender or muscle mass.
This means that sports professionals such as boxers, weight lifters with high muscle mass, etc could be classed as being overweight using BMI, but they could have a low body fat.
Also, as we get older we lose muscle mass so although we could be in the healthy range according to BMI, we could be carrying excess fat.
Certain ethnicities (Black, Asian and other minority groups) have a greater risk of developing long term conditions such as Type 2 Diabetes and therefore they are considered more at risk at a lower BMI. In this instance those adults with a BMI of 23 or more are at increased risk and those at 27.5 or more are at high risk.
BMI can only be used as a guideline and further assessments should be made if someone is in a high risk category BMI range.
The picture above shows the BMI categories
Karen is a qualified personal trainer and nutrition coach living in Cyprus near Paphos with her husband Mal and their cat Dave. She has been a personal trainer for 14 years and a qualified nutrition coach for over 2 years. She is passionate about working with people of any age and fitness level to improve their health and wellbeing.
Click here to see more of her posts.
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