Body Mass Index

Source: http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01320/aaaabmi-chart-for-_1320321a.jpg
 The body mass index is an advance from the older and less meaningful height and weight charts. And is the current tool used by health and insurance agencies to assess body weight and degree of obesity. However, it does not allow for individual variation of muscle mass and bone structure. 

 


Click on image for better view

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01323/lf-jockology-obesi_1323094a.jpg


Although body mass index (BMI) has been adopted by WHO as an international measure of obesity, it lacks a theoretical basis, and empirical evidence suggests it is not valid for all populations.1 The body mass index (BMI) does not accurately represent the amount of [body] fat,"2
The BMI has been around since the 1840s, but it has a number of weaknesses. Firstly, it doesn't give a real estimate of percentage body fat. Secondly, the BMI can be quite different for a man and a woman with the same percentage of body fat. And thirdly, your BMI can be high even if you don't have much fat, especially if you are male and very muscular. It turned out that hip circumference and height are more correlated with percentage body fat than anything else, including waist circumference and weight. The Body Adiposity Index. is a good predictor of percentage adiposity, so if your BAI is 30, then your percentage body fat is around 30 per cent. It is reasonably accurate - not terribly accurate - but usable as a clinical tool. It appears to be a better tool than BMI, yet research is still necessary before it can be used confidently. Unlike BMI, the BAI for men and women is the same if they have the same percentage body fat. It has been validated the BAI in African American populations. Its utility has not been confirmed in Caucasian subjects, although it has been tested it on a small group and it seems to fit. The real challenge is to be able to predict the risk of obesity-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension, and then to intervene. It remains to be shown that BAI is a more useful predictor of these outcomes than other measures of body adiposity.3

To calculate both BMI and BAI for comparison, please visit  http://www.intmath.com/functions-and-graphs/bmi-bai-comparison.php

1. Bagust A, Walley T. An alternative to body mass index for standardizing body weight for stature. QJM 2000;93((9)):589-96.
2.Richard N. Bergman, Keck Professor of Medicine at the University of California's Keck School of Medicine. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=139331
3. Richard Bergman.http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928030.200-obesity-expert-a-better-fat-measure-than-bmi.html

Comments

Edward said…
wow! assessing the degree of obesity is really needed so we cn manage or eating habits and do daily exercise.. People should proceed to a reliable Chiropractor.
October 23, 2011 at 1:02 AM
Vivek Visakkan said…
Thanks for the informative source shared. It was nice to read and know about.
Nice sharing and keep posting.
sports medicine manhattan
February 15, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beat Gluttony with Gullibility

Beat Gluttony with Gullibility Eating-behavior expert Brian Wansink ​ offers tips on fooling yourself into eating less. Katherine Harmon reports Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. And visual perception plays a big fat role in eating—often without our realizing it. So says Brian Wansink , a professor of consumer behavior and nutritional science at Cornell. His research has shown that people eat more when their food is served on larger dishes. Because lots of folks use an empty plate—rather than a full stomach—as a cue to put down their fork. Wansink reviewed his findings last week at the American Psychological Association meeting in Washington. In one experiment, he had unsuspecting subjects eat soup from bowls that continually refilled from the bottom. And volunteers who unknowingly ate from these bowls consumed on average 73 percent more soup than those who had had a finite supply. But both groups thought they had eaten about the same amount. Wansink’s advice i...
Read more

Straw Bale Gardening for Low Back Pain

Image
In this post, I’ll discuss two things I enjoy very much: helping you become and stay healthier through chiropractic, and gardening. More specifically, let me introduce you to STRAW BALE GARDENING. The idea is that you plant our tomatoes or zucchini, petunias if you like, or pretty well anything you would plant in the ground, directly into a straw bale. The benefits are: you can grow a garden over any type of soil, including the sandy conditions in Wasaga Beach, or even over a drive way if you so choose; there are few if any weeds growing in the straw to disturb your prize veggies (Caution! Use straw bales, not hay, as hay bales contain seeds); the straw retains moisture which lessens watering somewhat; it eliminates the problem of root nematodes and other soil born pathogens that can carry over in the soil and prevent tomatoes from thriving; and… here is the part that relates to chiropractic and your health … the straw bales raise your garden and requires less bending a stooping!...
Read more