*Comic taken from: cartoonstock.com*THE BMI has become known as the "quick and easy" way to calculate body fat percentage for adults. There are better tests to calculate body fat percentage, but they take up a lot of time. I'm still slightly dumbfounded that a person who is 6 feet tall would have to weigh about 177 lbs in order to be considered "normal". I say all of this to say, take it all with a grain of salt (which BTW has like 10 grams of sodium-lol). Your BMI estimate is not the end all to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Even Serena Williams is considered "overweight" according to the BMI, based on some sources. So, lifestyle is important when considering these numbers.
At first, BMI numbers were utilized by insurance companies to set rates and premiums. Historically, the BMI percentage rates for "normal" was within the 27.8% & 27.3% body fat range for men and women, respectively. However, in 1998, the National Institutes of Health consolidated that number for both men and women and decreased the "normal threshold" to 24 percent for all sexes.
In spite it all, the DATA still proves that their is a correlation to being "obese" and falling victim to chronic diseases. So, the most important point, is that we still have the secret to living our healthiest life...exercise regularly and eat well!!
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