Body mass index is a measurement that estimates your body fat percentage based on your height and weight. Your BMI helps you and your health care provider gauge if your weight falls into a healthy range for your height. Any BMI below 18.5 is considered underweight. A BMI below 16 means you are significantly underweight, and at risk of suffering various health conditions caused by a low body weight and low nutrient consumption.
BMI Categories
To understand how underweight you are with a BMI of 16, it is helpful to know how how small the range is for BMI categories. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 to 24.9, with anything over that considered overweight and anything under considered underweight. To be more specific about your level of health risk at a BMI of 16, the underweight category is split into sections. A BMI of 17 to 18.49 is considered mild thinness, 16 to 16.99 moderate thinness, and a BMI under 16 puts you in the severely thin category, meaning you at at high risk of suffering health effects associated with being underweight.
Osteoporosis
With a BMI of 16 you are likely not getting enough nutrients, vitamins and minerals, including calcium, to remain healthy. Your body requires calcium to keep your bones healthy and strong, therefore a lack of calcium puts you at risk of developing osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a condition where your bones become porous, which makes them brittle and weak. This condition increases your chances of suffering bone fractures, commonly in the hip, wrist and spine. In severe osteoporosis your bones are so brittle, coughing or falling can cause them to break.
Fertility Problems
Having a low BMI puts women at risk of fertility problems. A very low body weight alters hormone functions in your body, which potentially stops your body from ovulating and causes amenorrhea, the cessation of menstruation. Without ovulation, you will be unable to conceive. The hormonal changes from low weight may cause other side effects.
Anemia
Having a BMI of 16 can leave you feeling tired and drained, with little energy, and one of the causes of this may be anemia. Anemia is a condition where your body does not have an adequate amount of healthy red blood cells. If you are underweight, your diet likely lacks in proper amounts of iron, found in eggs, meats, green leafy vegetables as well as iron-fortified foods. Your body uses iron to make hemoglobin, an iron-rich protein which makes your blood red and carries oxygen throughout your body. Anemia can make you feel dizzy, irritable and cold.
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