Does BMI Help Weight Loss

You cannot be underweight, overweight or obese and must have the right weight to avoid various health issues. Here, knowing your BMI helps in maintaining an ideal weight.

Today, most health issues are due to the inability to have the right weight. If you are obese, you might suffer from medical conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular difficulties. If you have low body weight, you may suffer from malnutrition, osteoporosis, and anaemia. The doctor will make appropriate recommendations in such situations.

Here, the physician might ask about your BMI, a screening method that determines if a person is underweight, has a healthy weight, is overweight, or is obese. 

An individual's health risks may increase considerably if their BMI is not within the recommended range. BMI does not consider age, gender, ethnicity, or muscle mass in adults and does not measure body fat directly. However, it employs conventional weight status categories, which can assist in tracking weight across groups and identifying possible difficulties in individuals.

Table Of Contents

1.What Is BMI?

2.How To Calculate BMI?

3.How Is BMI Helpful In Weight Loss?

4.Dietitian’s Recommendations

5.The Final Say

6.FAQs

What Is BMI?

Body Mass Index (BMI) comes by calculating your weight and height. Here, the body mass is divided by the square of the body height to result in kilograms per square metre (kg/m2).

It is easy to calculate it using a table or chart that depicts BMI as a function of mass and height, using contour lines or colours for different BMI categories and other units of measurement. 

Based on tissue mass and height, the BMI is a simple rule of thumb used to classify a person as underweight (less than 18.5 kg/m2), standard weight (18.5 to 24.9), overweight (25 to 29.9), and obese, which are the four primary adult BMI classifications (30 or more). 

When used to predict a person's health rather than as a statistical measurement for groups, the BMI has limits that make it less effective than other alternatives, specifically when used on individuals with abdominal obesity, low height, or overly high muscle mass. 

BMI less than 20 and greater than 25 are known to increase all-cause mortality, with the risk rising when one moves away from this safe range. Body Mass Index is a popular measure of body fat content. Here, your weight alone will not tell if you are in a healthy weight range.

Although BMI is not a perfect assessment of body fat percentage in most circumstances, it is a suitable tool to determine risk levels for diseases, particularly those associated with excess body fat. 

People with a higher BMI may require greater dosages and follow weight loss  plans. As a result, knowing your BMI is critical to ensuring your general health.

How To Calculate BMI?

To calculate your BMI, you must know your weight and height. Once you have the details, you may compute the outcome using these two methods:

1.Divide your height by itself (height X height).

2.Divide your weight by the answer from step one.

The following are the formulae for determining BMI:

1. International System of Units (IS)

BMI = weight (kg) ÷ (height (m))

Example:

For a 1.77 m individual weighing 75 kg,

BMI = 75 / (1.77 X 1.77) = 75/ 3.13 = 23.96

2. Imperial System

Body Mass Index = weight (lb) / height (in) 2 X 703

Example:

For a 160-pound, 5’8” (68”) person with a weight of 75 kg,

BMI = (160/ 68 X 68) X 703 = (160/4624) X 703 = 24.3

After calculating your BMI, you can use the chart below to check what category your BMI falls into and whether you need to be concerned about your weight:

Below 18.5- Underweight

18.5 to 24.9- Healthy

25.0 to 29.9- Overweight

30.0 to 39.9- Obese

Over 40- Extreme or high-risk obesity

After this, you must also know about the three classes of obesity:

1.Class 1 obesity: Body Mass Index of 30 to less than 35.

2.Class 2 obesity: Body Mass Index of 35 to less than 40. 

3.Class 3 obesity: Body Mass Index of 40 or higher. It is considered severe obesity.

How Is BMI Helpful In Weight Loss?

Though BMI is not precise enough as a diagnostic tool, it may help screen adults and children for possible weight concerns. 

If a person has a high or low BMI, a doctor might also evaluate other criterias, like:

1.Skinfold thickness measurements in adults and children reveal how much fat is in the body.

2.Diet and physical activity assessments

3.Talk about any family history of cardiovascular disease and other health issues.

4.Suggest further relevant health check-ups

Although BMI is helpful, it cannot tell if most of your weight is muscle or fat. For example, an athlete with a lot of muscular tissue may have a higher BMI than someone who is not that active.

BMI can be used to know the severity and degree of obesity. Though it can assist in determining whether a person is overweight, it cannot treat or mitigate the effects of obesity on its own. 

However, in addition to BMI, various metrics can assist estimating the health risks connected to your weight more precisely, like waist-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, and body composition. These are the methods which measure body fat and lean body mass. These techniques primarily show the quantity of fat a person has and its distribution throughout the body.

Obesity is the most prominent avoidable disease worldwide you can diagnose using BMI. Based on the findings, specialists like dietitians or fitness trainers can suggest suitable food and activities help you deal with the issue. Here, lifestyle changes like weight reduction, eating regimens, and physical exercise can assist with behavioural counselling, medication therapy, and surgery to resolve the condition.

Obesity diagnosed using the BMI tool can be treated in the following ways:

1.Dietary regulation and management for weight loss- You will follow a specific diet for weight loss and fat loss  and bring your BMI to a safe range. 

2.Behavioural treatment- Obesity sometimes comes from an imbalanced mental state, which needs treatment through stress management, counselling people for psychological eating disorders, and anti-depression therapies.

3.Drug administration- You might also get medication for specific hormonal imbalances and other comorbidities.

4.Surgery- Depending on the condition, you might undergo bariatric surgery and techniques like gastric sleeve and Roux—En-Y gastric bypass surgery. 

Dietitian’s Recommendations

Once diagnosed with obesity using BMI and other tools, you can treat weight loss with persistent efforts to eat healthily, increase physical activity, maintain other good weight-loss behaviours and lose those extra kgs permanently.

-Dietitian Lavina Chauhan

The Final Say

BMI is a screening tool to help anticipate specific health concerns. You must use it with caution to get accurate results. Also, remember that it does not account for characteristics like exercise levels and body composition. 

When obtaining a BMI measurement of a kid or adolescent, it is critical to note their age and gender because their bodies alter as they grow. And if the result is not within the safe zone, following a suitable diet and treatment are essential to avoid associated health issues.

FAQs

1. Can diet help with weight loss?

Yes, dieting will offer desired results if coupled with appropriate exercise. Doing physical activity will speed up the fat-burning process.

2. What are the causes of obesity?

Obesity affects you when there is less physical activity, excessive calorie intake, genetic predisposition, medical disorders, and certain medications.

3. Is BMI a good indicator of weight?

BMI is a reliable tool to measure body fatness for most people. It helps to screen for weight categories leading to health problems. This calculator provides BMI and the corresponding weight category.

4. How do you lower weight with BMI?

To lower your weight and BMI, consume fewer calories than you burn. Initially, reduce your calories by 500 each day and lose one pound per week. 

5. Is BMI more important than weight?

Body Mass Index is more helpful than weight in assessing the degree of overweight. It is a measure of weight for height.

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