Using the Body Mass Index (BMI)
for Your Weight Loss Goals

A favorable body composition can be a very important factor in both your aesthetic apperance and your internal health. Making a conscious effort to lose weight and diet properly to decrease body fat is the first step to improving one's composition.

One of the ways that body composition is measured as you lose weight on your weight loss program is the body mass index, or BMI. This index is calculated using the following formula:

For example, if a 5'7" woman weighs 150 lbs, her BMI would be calculated first by converting her weight to kg (150lbs = 68.18kg) and her height to meters (5'7" = 1.70m). Then, the BMI formula would be used:

The BMI, however, has one major flaw. Since it is only based on height and weight, it does not take into account the effects of very muscular body types, who will naturally weigh more and may be read as overweight or obese despite being in excellent physical condition whether on a weight loss program or not..

The following chart shows what a particular BMI generally means for a given person:

For instance, a 6ft tall man weight 195lbs with a muscular frame would have a BMI of about 29, which is technicall overweight even though he has a superb body composition. Therefore, BMI should generally be used in conjunction with other indicators such as percent body fat hwen monitoring the results of your weight loss program or other strategies you may be using to lose weight.

Those who carry a good deal of muscle mass may want to exclude the BMI from their progress measurements altogether. The index may tell you that you need to lose weight or start a weight loss program when everything is perfectly fine.