BMI?

Many of you may have heard of the term BMI, but what really is BMI? BMI stands for Body Mass Index. The purpose of BMI is to assess your weight with an association to your height, basically, it measures your body fat.

The way your BMI is measured is by using a screening tool, which indirectly measures how much body fat your body really has. In mathematical ways, you would take your weight (in pounds) and multiply it by 703. Then, you would divide that number by your height (in inches). Finally, after you have done that, you would then take the new amount and divide it once more by your height (in inches). [For the metric system: your weight (in kilograms) is divided by your height (in meters squared) (kg/m^2)]

Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define BMI-for-age of children at or above the 95th percentile as being overweight. However, for adults, being classified as overweight would mean that you had a BMI of 25 and 29.9 and obese with a BMI of 30 or over.

One precaution to take when measuring your BMI: Although the purpose of BMI is to determine your body fat, it can sometimes be inaccurate, as a muscleman may have a higher BMI than someone who is unfit because his muscle mass makes up most of his actual weight. BMI is useful to indicate a healthy weight for the "average person," someone who may not be a muscle builder but also not a couch potato.