Smart Choices
Connie Lehman, RD at the Topeka Pharmacy
Do You Know Where Your Weight Is?
As a dietitian, I see many people
come in for counseling who are surprised when they find out where their
weight falls on a BMI, or Body Mass Index chart. Over the years, their weight
has increased slowly and they have
just not realized how far it has gone.
Excess weight increases our risk for
developing a variety of chronic health
problems like diabetes, knee pain, back
problems, and even increases our risk
for developing certain diseases like
heart disease and some kinds of cancers. Yet we often no longer know what
“normal” weight is for ourselves.
What is a BMI?
How do we know what a good
weight is? The BMI or Body Mass Index, is one tool which insurance companies now commonly use to assess
the health of their clients and many
insurance companies will assign higher
premiums to those whose weight is in
the higher levels of the BMI chart.
So, how does the chart work? It is
a chart which is based only on Height
and Weight. It does not take into account percent of muscle mass or if a
person is big boned. So it is possible
that a body builder will appear on the
chart to be in the overweight category
when they are really quite low in body
fat. However, for the vast majority
of us, the BMI chart is an accurate
representation of our general weight
situation, even if we are large boned.
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