ASIAN WOMEN BMI CALCULATOR FREE

This issue has led to suggested redefined BMI cut-off points for people of Asian ethnicity (where a healthy BMI is less than 23) and Polynesians (where a healthy BMI is less than 26). This includes findings from the early 2000s that found on measures for optimum health, people of Asian ethnicity should have a lower BMI, and people of Polynesian ethnicity could be healthier at higher BMIs. Research has also confirmed significant differences in body weight, composition and disease risk based on ethnicity. Too fat, too thin? How do you work out your ideal weight? We also know muscle mass decreases and shifts around the body as we age. Our bodies, by nature, have some distinct characteristics driven by our gender, including that females generally have less muscle mass and more fat mass than males. Their method prevails, even though BMI’s calculations and classifications are used universally today. When Quetelet created and Keys validated BMI, they studied largely male, middle-aged Anglo-Saxon populations. The BMI is something none of us like – racist and sexist. BMI does not account for demographic differences In white populations, a waist circumference of more than 80cm for women and more than 94cm for men is associated with an increased risk of chronic disease, and for Asian populations it is more than 80cm for women or 90cm for men.ģ. If you have fat stored around your stomach, your risk of chronic disease is much higher than people who have fat stored around their hips, because this is an indicator of how much visceral fat you have – the type of fat deep inside the belly that increases your risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Numerous studies have found people with the same BMI can have very different disease risk profiles, primarily driven by where fat is distributed in their bodies. BMI does not measure body fat distribution People with lots of muscle mass are often classed as overweight according to BMI. At the extreme, BMI has classified athletes in peak fitness condition, such as sprinter Usain Bolt, as almost overweight, and American footballer Tom Brady as obese.

While body weight can be a proxy for body fat, there’s an important reason it doesn’t always tell an accurate story: muscle is much denser than fat.īecause BMI calculators can’t differentiate fat from muscle, people can be easily misclassified. BMI misses a more important measure – body fat percentageīMI is based on body weight, but a person’s disease risk is linked to body fat, not weight. While BMI is an accessible and affordable way to screen a person’s health, it shouldn’t be relied on as a single measure of health.ġ.

The numbers don't have it: why measuring won't lead to better health

overweight – a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9.

Your result classifies you into one of four categories describing your body weight in a single word: To get your index, divide your weight by the square of your height in metres.

ASIAN WOMEN BMI CALCULATOR FREE

The BMI formula is simple, and easy to calculate thanks to the many free BMI calculators available online.

How is BMI measured, and what do the scores mean? Its use soon became widespread, and today, BMI is found everywhere, from the doctor’s surgery to the gym.

Quetelet’s calculation was subsequently renamed BMI and adopted as a primary indicator of health, thanks to subsequent studies confirming increased risks of heart disease, liver disease, arthritis, some cancers, diabetes and sleep apnoea with increased BMI.Įxplainer: overweight, obese, BMI – what does it all mean? Shutterstockįast-forward 100 years to the United States, where life insurance companies had started comparing people’s weight to an average population weight for similar individuals to calculate insurance premiums based on a predicted risk of dying.Īnnoyed by this somewhat unscientific approach, US physiologist Ancel Keys completed research with 7,000 healthy men using Quetelet’s measure, finding this method was a more accurate and simpler predictor of health that was also inexpensive. BMI started as a way to describe the average white man in the 1800s.

Asian women bmi calculator