Body Mass Index (BMI)

What is BMI all about?

Fitness And Health Gadgets

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of body fat considering height and weight that applies to most adult men and women with weight in kilograms and height being considered in meters.BMI is used in a wide variety of contexts as a simple method to assess how much an individual's body weight departs from what is normal or desirable for a person of his or her height. BMI Prime is a simple modification to BMI system. It is the ratio of actual BMI and the upper limit BMI.

Why use BMI:

•   BMI is simple, inexpensive and noninvasive measure of body weight.
•  BMI depends only on height and weight and can easily be calculated by individuals with some reasonable accuracy.
• BMI with some considerations can predict the risk of obesity and health risks.

BMI Limitations:

•          It ignores the muscle and bone mass distribution
•          BMI doesn't differentiate body fat and muscle mass
•          Possible risk of over BMI in people with more body mass like body builders, athletes
•          Unavoidable mislead of BMI in lean people like elderly

BMI levels for adults:

BMI levels for those of 20 years and older, BMI can be interpreted from standard weight status for all ages and for both men and women. The standard weight categories in relation with BMI for adults are:

BMI	Weight Status
Below 18.5	Under Weight
18.5 – 24.9	Normal
25.0 – 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and above	Obese

                                       

BMI levels for children and adolescents:

BMI levels for children and adolescents between 2 to 20 years old, BMI is calculated considering age and sex. This is because the amount of body fat changes with age and sex for this group of people. BMI should serve only for initial screening for children and adolescents. Health consultants should integrate some other factors like physical activity, diet, ancestors history and other appropriate screening. BMI-for-age categories and percentile ranges are:

Percentile Ranking	Weight Status
< 5th percentile	Under Weight
5th percentile to <85th percentile	Normal / Healthy weight
85th to < 95th percentile	Overweight
>= 95th percentile	Obese

With the advancement in technology, measuring weight status is made so easy through various body weight scales. Some of the best body weight scales are AWS Body Fat Analysis scale, Escali Smart Connect Body Scale with Bluetooth, FitBug WOW scale and many more. Among the best available fitness scales that measure the body weight, fat.... FitBug WOW scale together with FitBug AIR tracks more than just what a fitness scale can do alone?