Why Should You Not Rely On The BMI Coefficient?

Determination of body mass index. Determining the degree of obesity by body mass index. How correctly to determine body mass index? When losing weight, it is important to take into account the percentage of fat and muscle in the body.

There is no such thing as an ideal weight, just like an ideal body mass index. This coefficient was introduced in the first half of the 19th century, and is still used to determine the degree of obesity. It is noteworthy that relying on BMI is fundamentally wrong.

In pursuit of numbers

If you belong to the "cohort" of slimmers, then you probably know what the body mass index (BMI) is. Once upon a time, you also measured your height and weight in order to calculate a coefficient that shows how bad or good everything is. Having received the cherished number, you run to compare it with tabular data, and - oh horror! You can't do without extreme diets and exhausting loads here.

Hold on! Do you really think that everything in the human body is so standardized that you can easily calculate some coefficients and then draw conclusions from it. For the uninitiated, we remind you that the body mass index is the ratio of a person's height and weight, which is calculated according to the formula: BMI = A / BxB, where A is weight in kilograms, and B is height in meters. For example, if you weigh 100 kg and your height is 185 cm, then BMI will look like this - 100 / 1.85x1.85 = 29.22.

An index from 18.5 to 24.99 is considered normal; from 25 to 30 - overweight; from 30 to 35 - obesity of the first degree; from 35 to 40 - obesity of the second degree; more than 40 - obesity of the third degree.

 

Where is the fat, and where is the muscle?

In fact, body mass index indicators are not very informative. The resulting number will not tell you anything about the percentage of fat and muscle tissue in your body. Many sources indicate that BMI indicators are incorrect for older people.

Body mass index cannot be used for athletes. For example, a bodybuilder with a height of 170 centimeters can weigh 105 kg. If we calculate the BMI, it turns out that our bodybuilder has the second degree of obesity and he urgently needs to lose weight. And in fact, he has only 3-4% fat, but very massive muscles that give such weight.

We can consider a completely different picture. People with a pretended normal weight can easily suffer from obesity. For example, a woman weighing 60 kg may have as much as 30% visceral fat. If you calculate the BMI in this case, it turns out that everything is fine, but in fact, the person is obese.

Finally, I would like to remind those who are losing weight once again that there is no correlation between your weight and height. If weight loss occurs by reducing muscle mass , then you only make the situation worse. It is better to forget about the body mass index altogether. Concentrate only on fat folds and muscles. This is really more important than any numbers and ratios.