ARE YOU FAT OR THIN? ( PART 1)

This question looks simple but many people would give a wrong answer. The answer does not lie simply in what you see when you look at yourself in the mirror, or in the value you get when you stand on the bathroom scale. The truth is that you can be big, that is have large muscular frame, without being fat, and what some people or culture regard as fatness is indeed a slim feature to other people or culture.

Your body weight is the totality of your body, from head to toe, and its internal components like blood, water, fat, bones and muscles. Your body weight is a function of your height because the taller you are, the more skeletal weight you have. Therefore, to be able to give a scientifically reliable and unbiased answer, you need more than a mirror and a bathroom scale of your health status.

In view, of these factors, medical science has devised several ways or methods of determining whether an individual is fat or thin.

These methods require the following equipment and procedures:

1. Simple body weight and height measuring equipment.
2. Body mass index (BMI)
3. Anthropometric measurements.
   Out of this approaches to fatness or thinness determination, we shall discuss mainly the Body mass index ( BMI)

THE BODY MASS INDEX (BMI)

The body mass index expresses the relationship between a person's height and his weight, giving ratings that define healthy weight, under weight, over weight or obese individuals.

The Mayo clinic's (an american group of research scientist) comprehensive research on body mass index gave the following widely accepted BMI ratings:

18.4 and below = Underweight
18.5 -- 24.9 = Healthy weight
25.0 -- 29.9 = Overweight
30.0 and above = Obese

HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR BMI

Take your weight in kilogram, divide it by your heights in meters, then divide the result by your height in meters again.

BMI = WEIGHT (kg) = Weight (kg)
------------------- -----------------
HEIGHT (m) x HEIGHT (m) Height (m)*2

For example, if your weight is 80kg and your height is 1.7 metres, then your BMI will be:

               80 
           ----------
           1.7 x 1.7

= 27.7 ( overweight)

THE BMI CONSTRAINT

The BMI has a constraint in that it cannot differentiate between the contribution of fat ( undesirable) and muscle or lean mass ( desirable) to an individual's overall weight status. Nevertheless, the BMI is still a relatively dependable means of assessing a person's height to weight status.

So now check your height and weight and see what category you belong to?

A) Is your weight healthy? ( 18.5 and 24.9) If yes, congratulations, endeavour to stay within the limit of healthy weight.

B) Are you underweight? ( Less than 18.4) If yes, being underweight is challenging, affects one physically and socially. And there are also dangers of being underweight, so strive hard to get to the normal limit, more will be discussed in the next post.

C) Are you overweight or obese? ( greater than 25) If yes, there are a lot of medical complications associated with being overweight, so i will advice you work to get to the normal weight limit

More will be discussed on the topic in the next post
Until then cheers!!