ARE YOU REALLY OBESE?

You are already well on your way in the fight with obesity. Pause for a moment and answer the question, “Are you really obese?” It would indeed help to be sure. Neither you not I wish you to be fighting a non-existent demon or a figment of your imagination. You have an expert to guide you in case you really need to lose weight. It sure will boost your confidence and self esteem when you successfully lose even a few pounds of body weight but it would endanger your life if you use the same methods to become anorexic aiming at size zero.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is one of the excellent measures of body fat. It is calculated by dividing your body weight by the square of your height in meters. If you do not wish to take the trouble there are many BMI calculators available on the net. If your BMI is in the range of 18.5 to less than 25 then you are perfect. You might need a little exercise to get and stay in shape but let alone obese you are not even overweight. BMI of 25 or more and less than 30 qualifies you as overweight but definitely not as obese. It is only when your BMI crosses the threshold of 30 that you really need to begin your fight with obesity.

BMI is a far superior measure of body fat than body weight for a very simple reason. A taller person needs stronger muscles to support his longer bones. This causes the taller person to have higher body mass per centimeter than others with lesser height. Body Mass Index accounts for this discrepancy arising due to variations of height and is hence a much more scientific measure of body fat than body weight considered in isolation or in conjunction with height alone.