Body Mass Index Basal Metabolic Rate

BMI and BMR are two newer health terms and have become more popular in the last ten years. These terms where designed to help people to determine their current health level. Both terms have different meanings but, the BMI index is just not very helpful.

The BMI or Body Mass Index is based on your height and current weight to determine how healthy you are. The big flaw in this approach is the fact people are as different as snowflakes, no one is exactly the same and some are very very different. Here is a couple of examples; A very large basketball player around 6′ 10″ and weighs 280 pounds would have a BMI of 29.9 according to the chart below he would be overweight and borderline obese. If you take some Asian women who are 5’2″ and weight 86 pounds their BMI would be 15.7 and they would be considered very
underweight. The BMI approach to our health level in not only very flawed buy also doesn’t tell us anything you need to know about our heath needs.

Health Level
18.5 or less
40 or greater
Extremely Obese

For a complete chart and information checkout this link

Your BMR on the other hand gives you much more helpful information. BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate is the amount of calories your body needs to maintain your current weight, if you stay in bed all day. This number along with other information will help you to determine what changes you
need to make to achieve better health. Unlike the BMI index the BMR is determined by more than two generic factors. Your BMR is calculated by your height, weight, age and sex. Using these numbers a BMR calculator can give you more useful information based on facts such as the older you get, the
less you need to eat, and men and women have different caloric needs.

One last thought. When we are talking about better health the answer can be very different person to person. A basic number like you BMI doesn’t tell you really anything, but the BMR can give you a little more help in determining how many calories you need to achieve your ideal weight. Once
you find out what your ideal weight should be, you can start your journey to better happier life.