The Importance of BMI Calculation and Interpretation:

Body Mass Index (BMI) is one of the main terms which help us to value our weight. It spread throughout the world for finding whether a person is in good health or obese and it also helps to determine how much fat our body contain.

Many researches had revealed the truth that a BMI among 19 and 24.9 is healthy, one between 25 and 29.9 is fat and those who are more than 30 are obese.

As the BMI exceed 25 the risk of disease follow BMI but when the BMI exceeds 30 the risk of disease and death goes up severely. Here are some examples for you:

A standard female in America is healthy if she is 64 inches tall and her weight is between 110 and 140 pounds. She is said to be fat if she touches between 145 and 173 pounds. And obese if she is more than 174 pounds. Similarly a standard male in America is so healthy when he is 70 inches tall and has a weight of 132 and 173 pounds. He is said to be overweight when he is between 174 and 208 pounds and at more than 209 pounds he is obese.

"I am big boned, not overweight" is the mantra used by most of the people and this derives from the old insurance tables which were in use before the advent of BMI. In those days the insurance companies are the only ones who required keeping weight and height tables in order to compute insurable life risks. When they calculate it depends on the weight of the people who were subdivided into groups like "small frame", "medium frame” and “large frame".

The most notable point is BMI for children is more difficult and it differs from both age and sex. If there are two kids with different age and different sex and the BMI belongs to them will mean different things. This is called the body mass index-for-age percentile calculation .and yet if the age and sex for the both kids are same also they will have different results.

If a 10 year old boy and a 15 year old boy equally have a BMI-for-age of 23, the 10 year old would be well thought-out as obese and the 15 year old, as healthy.