What is BMI?

What is BMI?
BMI is commonly known as Body Mass Index. It is number that is calculated from the body weight and height and correlates to the %age of your total weight that is in the form of fats rather than the muscles bones or organs. So in short, if your BMI is high, then you have a higher percentage of fats in your body.

Average BMI
A BMI that is less than 20 means that you are underweight, while a BMI that is between 20 and 25 means you are a healthy person while if your BMI is more than 25 you are overweight! A BMI of 35+ is considered to be obese.

Factors Influencing BMI

There are various charts and calculators to determine your BMI. They are found on many websites. However, these are rough translations to your fat percentage as there are various factors which influence your true BMI. For example if your muscle mass is more, then your fats are less. Therefore a muscular person will have less BMI even though he weighs more or weighs exactly like a person who doesn’t have so many muscles. This situation will require special equipment like an immersion tank to calculate body mass index. That is why two people having the same weight will not float because fat is much more buoyant than the muscles.

Now, women tend to have more fats than men. Thus their %age body fat will be higher even though it will not be reflected in the BMI necessarily. Low body fat might be an unhealthy condition. In case your body doesn’t have too many fats, it will start consuming muscle mass to keep running. Therefore it is said that the athletes who try to overdo their exercises often end up losing strength rather gaining it.