Body Mass Index Tracker to Monitor Your Progress

Above all, instead of simply using a person's weight to track progress towards fitness, Body Mass Index (BMI) is better. In fact, BMI is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height, and applies to most adult men and women aged 20 and over. Furthermore, the BMI guide is used to track progress of your weight management and exercise program.

Meanwhile, having a healthy weight is good for you. Because good health prevents and controls many diseases and health issues. Furthermore, a person’s weight is determined by height, genes, metabolism, behavior and, environment. Therefore, to reduce your weight you have to eat fewer calories and increase physical activity.

BMI Guide

Most of all, there are three way to determine your BMI

First method is to divide your weight in pounds by the square of your height (in inches) and then multiply the result by 703.
Yet, another method is to use the National Institute of Health’s internet link.
Or, you can use the BMI guide below.

Interpreting the BMI Guide

Above all, once you know your BMI, the following BMI guide interprets the number.

Your Condition	BMI
Underweight	< 18.5
Normal	18.5 - 24.9
Overweight	25.0 - 29.9
Obesity	>= 30.0
Extreme Obesity	>= 40.0

Most of all, the BMI guide points out "normal" as the condition to target. Furthermore, at each condition above "normal", the goal is to get to the condition below your current condition. Also, the BMI guide takes your focus away from simply your weight to BMI, which takes height into account.

Indeed, for most people, the BMI can be used with the BMI guide above. However, BMI doesn't tell everything about your health and has the following limitations:

First of all, it overestimates body fat in body builders, athletes and others who have a muscular build. In fact, the heavy muscles result in a high BMI.
Also, it underestimatea body fat in older persons and others who have lost muscle mass. For these people a BMI between 25 and 27 (rather than below 25) is normal. For example, if you are older than 65, a slightly higher BMI may help protect you from thinning of the bones (osteoporosis).
Finally, the BMI does not apply to children.

In addition, no matter what your BMI is, exercise can help reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes.

Furthermore, an Australian study found that:

First of all, people aged 70 and over whose BMI fell into the overweight range were less likely to die in a 10 year period from all causes of death than those whose BMI fell into the normal weight range.
And, this was also the case of common causes of death such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Finally, being sedentary doubled the risk of death for women but only increased the risk by 25% for men.

Conclusion

In conclusion, use the BMI guide to set your fitness target and work towards it by a combination of healthy diet and exercise.