What is BMI?
Body Mass Index (BMI) uses weight and height measurements to determine if an adult is within the healthy weight range, underweight, overweight or obese. It establishes an estimate of total body fat and the potential risk of developing weight-related diseases.
Please refer to this page by the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
How did I measure?
What is it's limitation?
BMI has limitations because it only measures weight relative to height and does not distinguish between fat, muscle, or bone mass. It also fails to show where body fat is distributed, which is important for assessing health risks. Additionally, BMI does not account for differences in age, sex, ethnicity, or body composition, making it less accurate for certain individuals like athletes or older adults.
Are there more reliable measurements?
There are other methods to measure body composition. For example, waist-circumference measurements, waist-to-hip ratio and skin-fold measurements. Other tests such as InBody Scans and DEXA are more in-depth and can measure metrics such as lean muscle mass and visceral fat level.
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