Body Mass Index (BMI)
Developed sometime between 1830 and 1850 by Adolphe Quetelet,
the Quetelet Index more popularly known as the Body Mass Index
(BMI) is an effective way to determine the amount of fat in
the body and whether the amount measured already poses a health
risk to the individual.
The BMI is computed using a person's height and weight. To
get your Body Mass Index, divide you weight in kilograms by
the square of your height. The optimal Body Mass Index is
from 18.5 to 25 while a BMI of over 30 indicates that a person
is obese. An individual with BMI of 25 to 29.99 is considered
overweight. Those with a rating over 40 are defined as morbidly
obese. A person with BMI Over 15 but less than 18 is considered
underweight while a person with BMI rating lower than 15 is
considered to be already in 'starvation'. People suffering
from Anorexia or other eating disorders have dangerously low
BMI.
Since there are diseases associated with being overweight,
the higher the BMI, the higher a person's medical risk. However,
BMI should not be used as the only method for measuring body
fat, as the Qutelet method does not take into consideration
bone structure, muscle mass, bone mass, fitness levels and
other factors that affect a person's body fat level.
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