Body Fat not BMI

Posted by: Curt | Under: 40's/fit, 50's/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Ladies/fit, Prime/fit, Seniors/fit, Travel/fit, Youth/fit | (0) Comments

There have been a couple of recent studies that show that body fat, specifically belly fat, is a much better indicator than the traditional BMI (body mass index) at predicting weight related health problems like cardiovascular disease. The problem with body mass index is that it tries to fit everyone into the same mold. So, for instance, a tall person with a big belly might think he is OK while a short muscular stocky person would appear to need to lose weight. MSNBC has the article and it is worth reading and passing along-

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“The use of BMI alone does not discriminate between fat mass and fat-free mass, nor reflect the fat mass distribution,” Colombo told Reuters Health.

Colombo and colleagues recruited 23 men and 40 women, aged 20 to 65 years, to undergo body composition analysis in the Human Nutrition and Eating Disorders Research Centre at the university. The volunteers were healthy, but led sedentary lives and were not following a low-calorie diet.

The researchers obtained each person’s BMI as well as body-fat measurements including waist circumference and total percent body fat. The also calculated a measurement similar to BMI that identifies fat mass called body fat mass index. The investigators then compared the percentage of the study group that would be told to lose weight according to each calculation.

BMI calculations, they found, identified 11 percent of the group as needing strong recommendations to lose weight and 41 percent as needing basic recommendations to lose weight. By contrast, waist circumference measurements indicated about 25 percent would need strong recommendations to shed pounds and 36 percent would need basic weight loss recommendations, Colombo said.

Moreover, 29 percent and 48 percent would have received similar weight loss recommendations according to total percent body fat measurements, while 21 percent and 54 percent would receive the same, according to body fat mass index.

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