BMI- body mass index
Am I too fat, am I too thin? This is a frequent question in our contemporary society, in which looks are important and in which anorexia, bulimia, overweight and obesity became social issues. This question can be answered using BMI- body mass index or Quetelet index. BMI is a simple mathematical calculation, which indicates the report between a person`s weight and height, more exactly the person`s body weight divided by the square of his body height. The result is used to determine such weight problems as underweight, overweight and obesity.
It was invented in the 19th century, between 1830 and 1850, by a Belgian scientist named Adolphe Quetelet, the unit of measurement of BMI is kg/m² and has a connection with the development of “social physics”, but it became popular since 1950, when weight problems increased. To calculate BMI became an important milestone for the statistics and researches for the perfect body weight, but we should not forget that it doesn`t take into account such aspect as muscularity, frame size, bone or water weight. After using the BMI calculator a person can be included in the following BMI chart: severly underweight, when his bmi index is less than 16.5 kg/m², underweight from 16.5 to 18.5 kg/m², normal from 18.5 to 25 kg/m², overweight from 25 to 30 kg/m², obesse class I from 30 to 35 kg/m², obesse class II from 35 to 40 kg/m² and finally obesse class III over 40 kg/m². BMI has a major importance also in the medical system, because by it doctors can see your weight situation and by doing that can be detected many chronic health problems, such as anorexia, diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension and many others.
Even it is considered a precise mathematical calculation, we must understand the objectivity of BMI, by not forgetting the fact that every person is different and by this difference we must take into account age, conformation, geographical area, physical condition, bone structure and muscularity and right for these differences BMI has international variations. In these variations appered new categories of BMI range such as starvation, less than 14.9 kg/m² and morbidly obesse, greater than 40. The BMI of children is different from the BMI of adults. It`s value is calculated in the same way, but is used differently. BMI in case of children has a percentile, which is compared to values of other children, of the same sex and age.
