Finding out your Body Mass Index (BMI) is a great starting point to living a healthy lifestyle. A person’s BMI is calculated from their weight and height and is a reliable way to find out if a person’s weight is at a healthy level for their height. Because a BMI calculator uses a person’s weight to measure BMI it is generally thought that the lower the BMI, the better, but this is not entirely true. Because a BMI Calculator does not measure body fat it is actually a good indicator of how likely a person is to suffer from serious medical conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Anyone falling into the overweight, obese or morbidly obese category would need to lose weight to drop back into the normal category. Anyone in the underweight category could also be at risk from as many serious health conditions as an overweight person, so they would need to gain weight in order to have a healthy BMI.
A healthy BMI can help to reduce your chances of suffering from serious medical conditions such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Having a healthy BMI will also give you higher energy levels, make you look younger and live longer. If you exercise regularly and eat a low-fat, balanced diet, it is likely your BMI will fall into this healthy category. Factors such as a sedentary lifestyle and too many processed, high fat, high sugar foods will cause your BMI to rise as your weight increases, which can cause lethargy and lead to many other serious health conditions if ignored.
A person with an unhealthy BMI would fall into the overweight, obese or morbidly obese category, depending on how high their BMI is. A person with a high BMI is at a greater risk of suffering from various health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers and even a young person with a high BMI would experience tiredness and shortness of breath. While this might sound worrying, athletes or people with a large amount of muscle mass have been known to fall into the overweight or obese categories despite being perfectly healthy, showing that the BMI scale is not merely a measure of weight.
A person who falls into the underweight category puts themselves at risk from many medical conditions including malnutrition and absorption deficiencies. A woman who is underweight can also suffer from osteoporosis, anaemia, irregular periods and a suppressed immune system, putting them at increased risk from other illnesses. A person may have a low BMI if they consume less calories than they burn or it could be due to a more serious medical condition, which is why it’s important to visit your GP if your BMI does not fall into the normal category.