BMI: 18.5 vs 20 as minimum "healthy" level?
Why does the CC BMI tool say that the lowest "healthy" BMI for women starts at 20, and yet every other online BMI calculator says 18.5?
See?
http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
BMI Categories:
Underweight = <18.5
Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
Overweight = 25-29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater
Just curious, thanks.
It's kind of silly becaus e I've always had a naturally underweight BMI of 18 or less (l ower currently) and my do ctor says it's perfectly natural & healthy.
18.5 is when you're o longer "clinically underweight".
hmm
well I guess it just ;varies per person
there's been recent studies&nb sp;that show that people with BMIs of even 17 ;and lower can be just&nb sp;as healthy as those ov er 18.5
I do understand that it's a capricious number, ;though.
Some people read too much into it and treat i t like gospel
(not unlike the 1200 calorie rule)
Don't get to wrapped up in BMI. It is a national standard set based on an overall average of men and women based on your height compared to your weight. It does not take into consideration different types of body structures, large bones, muscle mass etc. It is a good general tool to use but focus more on your overall health goals. How do you feel, how do your clothes fit, are you at a weight you are happy with, are you training for an event which may alter your body like body building or traitholon's. You might look more at body fat % rather than BMI. This measures the direct ration of fat mass to fat free mass. This relates more directly to your immediate health and body functions.
hope I could help in any way
KD-
I agree, if you are near the low BMI for an adult, body Fat % is a better measure ment. The following is more informative
Classification Women (% fat) Men (% fat)
Essential Fat ......10-12%...............2-4%
Athletes..............14-20%...............6- 13%
Fitness................21-24%..............14 -17%
Acceptable...........25-31%.............18-25 %
Obese.................32%+..................2 5%+
I've been wondering the same thing. I have a BMI of 19 or so, which is fine according to a lot of calculators, but not the CC one. So I did a body fat calculation and it said that currently I'm at 32.2% body fat -- obese. But I'm 5'2" and 108 lbs, so I find it hard to believe that in order to have a healthy body fat % I'd need to lose 10-20 lbs of fat!
Therefore, I guess I'm just going to stick to the how-clothes-fit-and-how-I-feel method of analyzing my weight. It would be nice to have a number that would offer total certainty, but none of them seem to make any sense for me.
because 18.5 is borderline healthy. do you want to be borderline healthy? when i was at the height of my ed, i did. i grew out of that phase.. i love being healthy.
bmi charts are pointless. go by your own tools, use your eyes. if you look good then that's all that matters :)
it's somewhat subjective. i have a good friend who can be healthy even below 18.5, but she's kind of a freak. in evolutionary terms, she wouldn't have made it ;)
i was in the 19s probably into my 30s and that was fine for me, but lower than that wouldn't be good. and now, at 40, i doubt i'll go below 20 again.
18.5-19 is the minimum limit for underweight/normal
ideal means a bmi of 20-21
so i'm guessing CC goes wt the ideal one?
although it's important to know your body fat; 20-22% is pretty much ideal & healthy for a woman
If your BMI is low, but your bodyfat% is high, you need to gain muscle more than you need to lose fat. So, you need to do more exercise - particularly some kind of strength training.
We get a gazillion newspaper articles telling us this: if you are "obese" (BMI>30) you have a significant risk of early death compared to those of "normal" weight.
We don't hear this as often, but BMI in the underweight category (<18.5, for this case) is correlated with a risk of early death too.
You may be less than 18, and perfectly healthy, and someone else may be BMI=32 and perfectly healthy, but statistically speaking, neither is the best place to be.
(Actually, the best BMI to have is slightly overweight, the risk of death curve is lowest around 26, as I recall.)
There are better indicators of health than BMI: how much exercise you get, and what you eat. BMI is only indirectly related to these. So I'd say make sure you are eating enough good food, getting enough exercise (including strength training! Not just cardio!) and if your BMI creeps up to the 20-mark as a result, not to worry about it.
Well I was perfectly healthy at my highest BMI, which was about 28.6. Then my friend again, who has always been about 18 BMI, OR LOWER, and is perfectly healthy, too. But she's half asian and has the bone structure of a pixie, so I agree, it depends highly of the person. I think its rediculous to tell a naturally thin person to gain weight to at least 20 BMI if she/he is healthy.
BMI is only a guideline, the numbers are actually an estimation of your body fat %, so of course it's not going to be spot on for everyone. Some people have tiny frames, large, lots of muscle, lots of fat, ect...
