Body Mass Index: Are you obese?

by Jacki Donaldson (Subscribe to Jacki Donaldson's posts)
Sep 30th 2007 9:00AM

Are you surprised at all when I tell you American obesity rates are soaring? Probably not. I wasn't when my husband told me about this weighty article he'd read. It revealed that not one state showed a decline in obesity during the year 2006. Mississippi was the first state to crack the 30 percent barrier for obese adults. West Virginia and Alabama were just slightly behind. Colorado was the leanest state with a 17.6 percent rate. This year's report, looking at overweight children for the first time, has the District of Columbia topping the charts with heavy kids and Utah boasting the lowest rates for little ones.

Obesity is becoming an epidemic. And we need to treat it as an emergency. First step: determine where you stand. My hubby located this body mass index (BMI) calculator. I share it with you today so you can chart your own measurement. Just enter your height and weight and then calculate your BMI with one click of your mouse. If you come up with the number 30 or higher, you fit the definition of obese. If you find yourself in this predicament, you're in the right place. That's Fit offers an abundance of health and fitness tricks that can help you whittle away at your digits. If you are below the 30 mark, pat yourself on the back. And keep on truckin' in the direction of health, fitness, and wellness.

There's just one way to fix our nation's obesity problem -- plain old hard work. Each and every one of us must eat right, exercise right, and minimize our health risks. Only then can we watch our obesity statistics, like our BMIs, melt away to more perfect numbers.

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Comments (5)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FitBuff - Total Mind and Body Fitness 9-30-2007 @ 11:18AM

Hey Jacki,

Great article, and BMI is an easy way to quickly see where you fall on the obesity buffet line, but a few recent studies have shown that waist-to-hip ratio can be even better at assessing your risk.

In fact, why not try both?

Any ratio below 0.92 is considered safe, and you can find out how to calculate your waist-to-hip ratio here:

http://www.fitbuff.com/hip-to-waist-ratio-carries-more-weight-than-scale/

wonkyeye 9-30-2007 @ 8:19PM

as an athlete, I have always found BMI to be very misleading, the number of incredibly healthy, fit individuals who test in the high 20's or low 30's negate it's usefulness in my opinion, I happen to come out at a 29 and was in the 30's when I was an athlete competing internationally

Mike 10-14-2007 @ 3:08PM

The BMI is supposed to be used as a guideline for most. A high muscle to fat ratio will skew the results. So if you are an athlete the results will be off.

Zach 10-16-2007 @ 6:35AM

The BMI in my opinion is a worthless tool. I am double super obese at my height and weight, 260, 6'4", even though I am lower body fat. Most people have to be near anorexic to be even close to the normal range. Best tool is the mirror.
http://www.physzique.com/Articles/Personal-Trainer-Spokane-7Questions.html

Chad Leader 12-09-2007 @ 11:33AM

BMI for anyone that is even slightly active is completely wrong! I'm 6'1" and about 218 pounds it shows that I'm overweight. I operate a mobile hydrostatic lab http://www.ultimatetestlab.com and can prove that I'm usually under 17% bodyfat which is excellent for my age. The BMI calculator is one of the worst weighs to determine health. The calculation has no way of knowing if your weight is made up of lean body tissue or fat! It doesn't matter how heavy you are if your bodyfat percentage is low. A 100lb person that has 25lbs of fat has 25% bodyfat. If this person gains 10lbs of muscle and stays 25lbs of bodyfat their bodyfat percentage just dropped to 22.7! They are now healthier because they gained GOOD weight including bone density and muscle.