While reading materials about fitness, health and healthy eating, you may have come across concepts such as BMI, muscle mass, fat tissue or basal metabolism more than once, and no definition of these terms was given in the article itself.
BMI stands for Body Mass Index. This parameter is very important when assessing the physical condition of a person, especially when determining the amount of overweight in adult men and women. BMI is calculated as follows:
BMI = weight (kg) / height2 (m)
For example, the BMI of a person weighing 75 kg and 1.80 m tall is:
BMI = 75 / (1.80 x 1.80) = 75 / 3.24 = 23.1
Your weight is normal if your calculations result in a BMI between 19 and 24.
The World Health Organization divides BMI into eight categories. The four main ones are:
- Underweight if your BMI is less than 19.
- Your weight is normal if your BMI is between 19 and 24
- Overweight if your BMI is between 25 and 30.
- Obesity if your BMI is above 30.
However, in order to properly assess whether an adult is overweight (or underweight), BMI must be considered in conjunction with other measures, such as fat and muscle mass, which will be discussed in our next review.