What Is a Healthy BMI?
Body Mass Index, aka BMI.
General physicians love it, and meatheads hate it.
You may have heard the term thrown around, but what does it really mean?
Well, BMI is a measure typically used to determine whether or not your current body weight is ‘healthy.’
It uses two data points, your height, and your weight.
It’s calculated by dividing your weight (in kilograms) by your height squared (in meters).
Here’s what it looks like:
BMI = kg/m^2
Now you can pretty much forget that information because you don't need to calculate your own BMI.
There are a bunch of calculators and graphs that you can find on google that’ll get you your BMI in like 10 seconds.
And if your math skills are anything like mine, I’d much rather do that than have to go through that formula.
But, what is a ‘healthy’ BMI?
How do you know whether your BMI is ‘good’ or not?
So here is a brief rundown of the BMI ranges according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)…
<18.5 = underweight
18.5 - 24.9 = normal or ‘healthy’ weight
25 - 29.9 = overweight
>30 = obese
Now before you panic, let’s discuss what this all really means.
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Anywho, these ranges were created by the CDC (not by me).
What this means is, it was written to apply to MOST people.
So while these ranges apply to the general majority, they don't apply to everyone necessarily.
There will be some people who are in the ‘overweight’ range who are actually VERY healthy.
There will be some people who are in the ‘underweight’ range who are actually VERY healthy.
AND there will be some people who are in the ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’ weight range who are actually VERY unhealthy.
So BMI, while a valuable tool for some, certainly is not the only tool.
Let’s take a minute and explore the why of it all.
Well, as we discussed earlier, BMI looks at height and weight. You saw earlier that the formula only uses two data points, one being height and the other being weight.
Obviously height is height, not a whole lot to explore there.
But the weight part has some more to it. Due to the fact that weight alone is used in the formula, there are a few factors that are left unaccounted for.
Most importantly, weight that can be attributed to lean mass or muscle.
Not every pound (or kilogram in this case) is created equal.
A pound of muscle is much better, from an overall health perspective, than a pound of fat is.
And, on top of that, muscle is more dense than fat.
This means muscle weighs more than fat does.
So someone with an ABOVE average amount of muscle, and a BELOW average amount of fat, may end up in the overweight or obese range of the BMI ranges…
When in reality this person, by all other standards, is extremely healthy.
Now let’s explore the other side for a second.
In contrast to this person with low body fat and a large amount of muscle, what about someone with a lot of fat and no muscle?
While most of the time, this person would likely be in the overweight or obese categories, it's possible this person could end up in the normal or healthy weight categories.
So there are just two examples where you could have someone either in the overweight or healthy weight categories based on BMI, who by all other standards is the opposite.
But what does all of this mean?
I’m sure at this point you’re probably waiting on the punchline so I’ll get to it.
While BMI is an extremely valuable tool for many, like many things in the health and fitness industry, it should not be the only metric you look at.
Metrics like body fat percentage, or lean body mass, are important to look at in conjunction with BMI.
ESPECIALLY if you’re someone who carries more lean mass (muscle) than the average Joe.
But I will also say, for the general majority of people, if you’re BMI is in the overweight or obese ranges it likely means you MAY need to lose some weight/decrease your overall body fat for more ‘optimal’ health outcomes.
Which is why, despite all of its faults, BMI is still very important and is a metric used daily across the health and fitness world.
If you’re unsure what to do with your BMI results OR how to decrease your BMI, feel free to shoot me an email with any questions!
I also wrote a complete article on how to lose fat, check it out here!
https://www.kevinfinnfitness.com/articles/how-to-lose-fat-the-ultimate-guide-to-fat-loss
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