What if bmi is high

According to some research, more than half of Americans have a normal BMI but a high body fat percentage, which is known as normal weight obesity. A person who has normal weight obesity is just as unhealthy as someone with a high BMI. Body fat percentage distinguishes fat from muscle and calculates the percentage of body fat in the body.

While BMI is a rough estimate of body fat, body fat percentage is a more accurate number. Using body fat percentage, we might find that a highly trained athlete is overweight, according to the BMI, but not overfat. Likewise, a person of normal weight on the BMI scales may still be overfat and at risk of weight-related diseases. The body mass index BMI is a measure that uses your height and weight to work out if your weight is healthy.

The BMI calculation divides an adult's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. For children and young people aged 2 to 18, the BMI calculation takes into account age and gender as well as height and weight. If you want to calculate your BMI, try our healthy weight calculator. BMI takes into account natural variations in body shape, giving a healthy weight range for a particular height. As well as measuring your BMI, healthcare professionals may take other factors into account when assessing if you're a healthy weight.

Men, in particular, often deposit weight in the waist region and therefore have an increased risk of obesity-related disease. Studies have shown that the distribution of body fat is linked to an increased prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Generally, the associations between health risks and body fat distribution are:. Being physically active, avoiding smoking, and eating unsaturated fat instead of saturated fat have been shown to decrease the risk of developing abdominal obesity.

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