After calculating your body mass index (BMI), you might wonder how accurate it really is and if it should change your lifestyle or the way you think about your health.
While BMI offers a general snapshot, it’s only one piece of a much bigger picture. Here’s what to know before letting a single number define your health journey.
See Stuart Felzer, MD, FACP, at Premium Healthcare in Wilmington, Delaware, to calculate your BMI or learn more about what your number means.
BMI estimates your approximate body fat based on your height and weight. BMI calculators, formulas, and numbers are used for both men and women.
A healthy BMI means you might have a lower risk of health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and other chronic diseases.
You can determine your BMI using the following formula:
You can also use an online BMI calculator to quickly and easily determine your BMI.
Here is a breakdown of the different BMI categories.
Being underweight, overweight, or obese may increase your risk of certain health concerns. Examples include:
Being underweight might boost your chance of:
Being in the overweight or obese BMI category may increase your risk of:
But genetics, body composition, and lifestyle (not just BMI) all play roles in your risk of developing health problems down the road.
BMI isn’t always an accurate way to evaluate body fatness because it’s only based on your weight and height. BMI doesn’t take into account bone dentistry, muscle vs. fat ratio, or your overall body composition.
Muscle weighs more than fat, so a very muscular person might be lean and healthy but fall into an overweight or obese BMI category.
Other health indicators include waist circumferences, body fat analyses, and DEXA bone density scanning.
But BMI calculation is a fairly good estimator of your chronic disease risks. To learn if you’re at risk based on a more in-depth evaluation at Premium Healthcare, Dr. Felzer completes a physical, and orders lab work, heart function testing, or other diagnostic tests, if necessary.
He customizes preventive care that reduces your chance of health complications and uses remote patient monitoring to evaluate your progress and risk factors over time.
Contact us at Premium Healthcare for a BMI evaluation and personalized preventive care treatment plan. Simply call our office or request an appointment online today.
