Calculating your own BMI may well seem like some sort of arcane procedure that you really don't have the time or the intellect for. Think again! It's not complicated and it's not something that can only be worked out properly by a doctor. And it's a useful guide to your health and weight and can help you get rid of excessive flab, such as love handles,belly fat and unwanted man breasts. You may have seen and used automatic BMI calculators online which asks you to put in your weight and height before telling you 'Your BMI is ...' along with a scale of numbers so you can evaluate whether you're dangerously obese, underweight, have a few pounds to lose or don't have to worry for the moment. How the calculator online works this out is actually pretty simple if you know what the underlying formula is. But first, what do the letters 'BMI' stand for, and what does BMI actually mean? BMI stands for 'Body Mass Index'. It's a way of looking at your weight in proportion to your height. A heavy person who is very tall may be quite slim although they weigh a lot of pounds. Someone much shorter who weighs the same will be fatter. The BMI number represents the ratio of your height to your weight. The way it is calculated is simply by dividing your weight by your height. Then, by comparing the single number that is the result, you can see on the standard BMI scale whether you are underweight, overweight or normal for your height. It's not a perfect system because it doesn't measure the proportion of fat to lean muscle in your body. So very muscular people such as athletes or body-builders may come out with a 'high' BMI (indicating they're overweight) when actually they're in stellar shape. (Muscle is denser than fat so it can throw out the calculations.) There are also a very few 'thin fat people' who do not appear overweight but have such a sedentary lifestyle that their fat-muscle ratio is too high in fat. They will appear normal or slightly overweight on a BMI scale when in fact they may face health risks from having too much fat in their body. For such a person it's a good idea to get onto a healthier diet as soon as possible, perhaps including health supplements to help boost muscle and lose fat -- such as chromium with B-complex, acai berry or green tea -- and choose some fun exercise regimes which can be taken gradually up to a high effort level -- for example, kettlebell routines or gym circuits. To find out your own BMI, simply take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in meters, squared. For example, say you are 160cm tall. 1.6mX1.6m gives 2.56 (that's the height squared in meters). And say you weigh 60kg. Divide 60 by 2.56 and you get 23.44. That is your Body Mass Index -- the index, or guide, to your body's mass, or basically how much weight you have for your height! If you work out your BMI and it totals 18.5 or less, you are underweight. If it falls in the range from 18.5 to 24.9 (like the number we just calculated as an example) then you are a normal weight for your height. If your BMI is more than 25 but less than or equal to 29.9 then you are overweight for your height. A BMI of more than 30 is classed as obese and there are health risks attached. Although BMI calculators don't give very subtle results, knowing your BMI does give you a numerical handle on what your body's proportions are like compared with the healthy norm. So now you can calculate your own BMI and if it comes out a bit higher than you'd like, you can set yourself a new BMI goal to work towards.
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