Many fitness and sports watches will calculate your BMI. However, if your doesn’t here is how to calculate it in 4 steps.
BMI is short for Body Mass Index. Quite simply it’s used to determine the ratio of a person’s weight to the person’s height. However, it doesn’t take into consideration whether a person has a larger or a smaller body size.
The next thing you’re probably wondering is how to figure out BMI. It’s actually quite simple (though you may need a calculator).
To figure out BMI follow these four basic steps:
1. Determine how tall you are in inches and multiply it by itself (for example: if you are 5′7″ in inches you are 67 inches.You would now take 67 X 67=)
2. Determine your weight in pounds and multiply it by 703.
3. Divide the number you get from #2 by the number you get from #1.
4. Round to the nearest whole number and that is your BMI.
Not too difficult is it?
Once you know your BMI, then you can figure out whether you are an ideal weight, underweight, or overweight. Just remember that the numbers below aren’t perfect. Some people may have a larger body type than others. Therefore, the may have a slightly higher BMI but not actually be overweight.
Here are the numbers:
BMI under 15 = Starvation
BMI 15 – 18 = Underweight
BMI 18.5 – 25 = Ideal Weight
BMI 25 – 30 = Overweight
BMI 30 – 40 = Obese
BMI over 40 = Morbidly Obese
Once you figure out your BMI, you should have a decent idea about where your weight is. But remember that BMI doesn’t take into consideration different body types. In addition, BMI doesn’t take muscle into account either. Therefore, people who are particularly fit with a great amount of muscle on their bodies will have a higher BMI than others. On the other side of the coin, older people who have lower muscle mass may be overweight but their BMI will stay relatively low because they have no muscle weight.
If you think you fall under one of these categories, you may want to choose a different way to monitor your weight. If you trying to become more fit and you’re dieting while exercising, you may look better but not lower you BMI. This is because muscle is replacing fat. In this case, you may want to measure how much your waistline is decreasing.
BMI is a great way to measure if a person is the ideal weight for their height or not. However, it is not a perfect measurement. Be sure to calculate your BMI correctly but don’t forget that other factors can cause your BMI to be higher or lower than other people’s BMI.
