Unless you’ve been living under a rock, I’m sure at some point over the course of your lifetime you have heard someone refer to your BMI, or Body Mass Index.
Your Body Mass Index is simply the amount of weight you have for your height calculated by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing it by your height in meters squared.
The resulting number then equates to what the experts have decided that healthy or unhealthy ranges are for the amount of weight you are carrying.
However, what the BMI doesn’t account for is overall body composition.
The amount of lean muscle vs. body fat you have within your body is characterized as your body composition. Lean muscle is composed of muscle, tissues and bones and body fat is essential and non-essential fat of which you have both visceral (in and around your organs) or subcutaneous (beneath the skin).
For instance a competitive body builder is going to have an “unhealthy” BMI as it will often show that he or she is in the “obese” category. Clearly a lean ripped bodybuilder is not obese. Therefore we don’t want to just depend on this number alone…we should always dive deeper and also take a look at your body fat percentage as this typically is what we are looking to reduce in a weight loss program, correct?
My suggestion is to work with a personal trainer who is certified in helping you determine your body fat percentage in conjunction with your BMI so that you can together set effective goals where you are not depending solely on what the scale says.
After all, muscle weighs more than body fat and takes up less space in our bodies.
It’s not the scale we want to focus on it’s our body composition!
If you’re looking for a 30 Day Jump Start to get you on your way to a healthy BMI and Body Composition check out my program here!
