Body mass index, or BMI, is a way of estimating your body fat content, based on your height and weight. Though BMI isn't an exact science, it gives you a good sense of where you stand on the weight spectrum--underweight, healthy weight, overweight...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, use body mass index, also known as BMI, to determine overweight and obesity ranges. BMI is a measure of weight relative to height and is calculated by dividing weight in pounds by height...
Obesity is more than just carrying a little extra fat weight -- it is a medical condition that not only interferes with your quality of life but poses potentially serious health risks. Obesity-related health risks include high blood pressure,...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention labels American society as "obesogenic," meaning there's far too much promotion of overeating, eating unhealthy foods and generally living a very sedentary lifestyle. According to data from the...
The body mass index, or BMI, is a tool that doctors use to determine if a person's weight is healthy in relation to the person's height, according to the National Institutes of Health. When a person's BMI is above the healthy range of numbers,...
One third of the American adult population is obese. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index---BMI---of 30 or greater. The term obesity refers to excess weight for a given height....
The body mass index (BMI) is a ratio of height to weight. Along with waist circumference, it is a key measure used by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease...
The body mass index became the medical community's primary way of measuring obesity in the 1980s. The BMI became popular because its formula for determining the correlation between height and weight was the most accurate height-weight formula in...
BMI, or body mass index, is one of a number of indicators to describe your body composition. Derived from measurements of your height and weight, BMI is used to help classify your level of disease risk. According to the National Institutes of...
One way that doctors can determine your overall body fat ratio and assess your risk for certain diseases is by calculating your Body Mass Index, or BMI. The BMI system consists of four categories--underweight, normal, overweight and obese. If your...
Body mass index (BMI) measures your weight relative to your height. This number can provide more information about your health and body fat levels than your weight in pounds. Your BMI value offers a good starting point for discussions about your...
Body mass index, or BMI, is a measurement system that uses weight and height to identify potential weight-related health problems. Among other things, you can use BMI to uncover cases of morbid obesity, an extreme overweight condition linked to a...
Patients who are super obese are at a significantly higher risk of serious obesity-related health conditions. If you fall into the super-obese or morbidly obese categories, talk to your doctor about resources available to you for weight loss....
The epidemic of obesity has spread rapidly in the United States. In 2008, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 68 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese. This roughly equates to more than 210,800,000...
Body mass index (BMI) is an assessment tool used to determine if a person's weight is healthy with respect to his height. Both the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) use BMI,...
The extra pounds you gained over the past years affect more than just the clothes in your closet. In reality, those extra pounds have not only increased your waist size, but your body mass index or BMI, weight classification, disease risk and...
Body mass index, or BMI, is an assessment of how healthy your weight is for your height.The scale alone, however, does not provide complete information about your health. Knowing your BMI does allows you to gauge your risk of developing chronic...
According to the National Institutes of Health, obesity is characterized as an excessive or disproportionate amount of body fat. It is calculated by using a person's height and weight to determine the total body mass index. Often referred to as...
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the premier agencies in the United States organized to track health problems, promote research and institute prevention strategies. As obesity grows at epidemic levels, the CDC uses many of...
According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 1 billion overweight adults worldwide, and at least 300 million of them are obese. Working out your Body Mass Index, or BMI, is one of the first steps to assessing how healthy your...
Body mass index, also known as BMI, is a calculation of your weight and your height to determine body fat levels. Healthcare workers commonly use it to identify individuals who may be overweight or obese. It’s important to understand that...
Body mass index (BMI) is used by doctors and researchers to classify a level of "normalcy" for body weight based on body mass and height. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute categorize a...
More than a quarter of all Americans -- 26.7 percent, to be precise -- were obese as of 2009, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the number is rising. To find out if you're among the ranks of the obese, calculate your...
Being overweight or obese raises the risk of many chronic diseases and it also places stress on the back and joints, which can contribute to chronic pain. Health care providers use tools such as body weight, body mass index, or BMI, waist...
The body mass index measure, or BMI, is a common screening tool used to assess your weight-related health risks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. Your BMI is calculated using your height and weight and then...
The term obesity is often used synonymously with overweight when, in fact, the terms refer to two different conditions. Clinically speaking, obesity refers to having too much body fat. BMI is an assessment used by doctors to screen for risk of...
Obesity is a serious health condition that can be caused genetically, as well as by overeating and a lack of physical exercise. Too much body weight can add stress to the body and cause medical problems such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure...
Your body mass index is a calculation of your body composition based on weight and height. You can calculate your BMI by dividing your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared then multiplied by 703. Once you have figured your BMI, you...
Body Mass Index, or BMI, can help you assess your weight for your height and whether your weight may jeopardize your health. If your weight for height ratio falls within the healthy range and your pattern of fat distribution indicates a low health...
