Body Mass Index

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a quick and easy reference guide for researching and categorizing health and disease risk factor with body fatness. It is extremely easy to use just because a investigator or health care provider only must know your height and weight. For more information on bmi calculator, visit our website today!

The BMI chart was produced over a century ago as a means of charting body 'fatness' or 'thinness'. With the influence of Ancel Keys (visionary researcher way ahead of his time) BMI grew to become a leading tool in the 1970s for assessing population health risks.

There's a critique that the BMI does not account for different 'frame' sizes of people (endomorphs and ectomorphs) or athletes who've developed their muscles to some much bigger degree than the regular population. Both of these criticisms appear to become weak as true ectomorphic or endomorphic individuals are unusual... in short, for most of the population the BMI works all right, and that was the point in the to begin with.

The athlete argument does not hold much water either, because they represent a really small percentage of the population and many of them use steroids and other drugs that artificially elevate their lean body mass. In short, the BMI never was intended to be put on people taking steroids and GH.

What exactly about 'natural' athletes and bodybuilders that do not use drugs but simply build lots of muscles? Surely they would not be in the 'normal' BMI range... right? Not!

My body weight fluctuates between 180 - 183lbs. In both cases I'm still within the normal BMI range. And this is when the argument about athletes being in the 'overweight' BMI range because of elevated muscle mass falls apart for me.

I do not think I look too small or missing in muscle development. In fac, I have spent the past fifteen years attempting to build just as much muscle when i can... and I still fall within the 'normal' BMI range. If anybody would be a candidate for being 'overweight' because of muscle mass I figured surely I'd whether it is... but not a chance, I am still 'normal'.

So the argument that athletes can take shape enough muscle to in some way push them out of the normal BMI range appears a little wonky in my experience (unless of course of course they're using steroids or were true endormorphs to start with... that is a very small portion of the population). I do not think I possibly could get larger, nor will i think I have to considerably bigger.

The problem individuals have with the BMI isn't the chart itself, what the chart way to them. The chart is supposed to show 'fatness' and classify it as being normal or abnormal on both the high and low finish. The key phrase here's 'normal'.

What ought to be normal for most human physiques and what's become normal in modern western societies are a couple of various things.

The BMI chart shows what ought to be normal, not what's presently considered normal.

If most of the human population is overweight (based on the BMI chart) the error in logic might be that the human population is right and the BMI chart is wrong.

I believe lots of people possess a sharp emotional response to such things as the BMI chart since it categorizes you in a means that feels discriminatory and prejudicial. Of course there's no emotion behind the BMI chart, it is simply a mathematical equation... but there's some thought and research in it, it's not only an arbitrary idea, which means you know there's some validity to the category you have been placed in based on the chart. And for this reason it bothers people. If there's good quality reason your reason for categorized as 'overweight' then you are confronted with the following dilemma regarding your belief in the normalcy of your present body size:

Either the chart is wrong, or else you are wrong.

It's much simpler to dismiss the chart to be inaccurate and not helpful for your particular body shape and size or whatever excuse you want, than to simply accept the fact that possibly you are in fact simply overweight.

The final point on this subject is the view from being in the normal category versus the obese or overweight groups.

I had been much heavier than I'm now and I made use of all the same excuses explaining away the BMI as archaic and outdated and did not account for the mountain tops of muscle I'd built over the years yadda yadda. In reality, I had been just fat.

After I went through my cut lower and got rid of all the excess weight I finished up exactly where the BMI chart predicted me to become at the high finish of the normal range... making sense as I have built just as much muscle when i can without drugs.

If I am presently in the normal category, and I have spent my whole life attempting to get ripped, and all of my measurable health markers are in excellent shape, and I am pleased with the look and shape of my body, and I've got a golden Adonis Index ratio... then how is it feasible for me or anybody with roughly my frame (that is average) to really be in the overweight category without simply getting more fat mass on their body and subsequently searching worse than I actually do at this time?

In short, if many people suggest the BMI cutoff for 'overweight' is not high enough, then exactly what does that cause me to feel in these pictures? Underweight?

Or perhaps is it that individuals who can't stand the category the chart puts them in come with an immediate reaction of dismissing the chart to be wrong rather of heeding the guidance it offers to get rid of some weight. This of course is cognitive dissonance at its finest. Want to know more about bmi chart for adults? Visit our website for more information.

For anybody who's in the 'normal' range the BMI chart appears to create sense. It appears in my experience that if more and more people were in the normal range there would not be any argument whatsoever about the BMI chart. With that stated I believe it's possible to become in the 'overweight' category and in perfect health and look great. However I think this designation pertains to an uncommon group of those who have the capability to build spectacular muscle mass drug-free. For the majority of the population the standard BMI chart still appears to become all right.