Excite - Health
The BMI gets far too much attention as an indicator of obesity and health.
The widely used body-mass index (BMI) is not an accurate indicator of cardiovascular risk for people with heart disease because it does not distinguish between muscle and fat, a major review of the data contends.
BMI is determined by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by height in meters squared. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy, while over 25 is considered overweight and over 30 is considered obese.
Since muscle weighs more than fat, lean muscular people show up as having a high BMI. Most professional athletes would qualify, including basketball players. Yet I bet you’ve seldom thought “he is fat” when watching a basketball game.
A better test, by far, is body fat percentage. Though some recommend testing body fat with calipers, I found a scale that measures body fat for under $100. It allows me to conduct the test daily and track my progress.