With a BMI over 25, you are considered overweight and this has health consequences. At least that's the theory according to the body mass index.
Behind the well-known value is a simple formula that supposedly provides information about how healthy someone is. And so the famous body mass index is not only used by nutrition experts and fitness coaches, but also serves the World Health Organization as a measure of our health.
But what does the calculation of BMI actually tell us? Find out what this number reveals about your health and where the widely used benchmark has its limitations.
This BMI is considered healthy
What is BMI, anyway?
BMI, or body mass index, is a measure that calculates a person's weight in relation to their height. Using a simple equation, it shows whether someone is considered overweight, underweight, or of normal weight.
Since BMI calculators do not take into account the individual composition of fat and muscle mass and also ignore stature, the result only serves as a rough guide.
To interpret the calculated BMI, gender and age are often included. For example, the upper and lower limits of normal weight are often set higher for men than for women because they generally have slightly more muscle mass.
With age, the BMI may also increase a little, because people who have a few fat reserves in old age are more likely to withstand illnesses for longer. Older people who are considered overweight are therefore more likely to enjoy better health.
When are you considered healthy according to BMI?
With a BMI between 18.5 and 25, you are officially considered to have normal weight. If the value is below this, you are considered underweight; if it is above it, you are considered overweight. People with a BMI over 30 are classified as obese according to various degrees of severity.
Obesity is considered a high risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, lipometabolic disorders or high blood pressure. So if you are classified as obese according to BMI, you are more likely to suffer from these conditions.
However, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), not only being severely overweight but also being underweight can harm your health, because according to various studies, people who are underweight have a higher mortality rate than people of a normal weight.
However, BMI alone is not enough to classify someone as healthy or unhealthy. A meta-analysis of studies up to 2012 even showed that the mortality probability for slightly overweight people was 6% lower than for people of normal weight, according to BMI.
The reason for this is that BMI does not take into account general health. For example, smoking or certain illnesses can cause weight loss, which is why those affected are more likely to be classified as having a normal weight.
Why BMI says nothing about your health
A person's health does not automatically depend on their BMI. This is because one important criterion that is not taken into account is the distinction between muscle and fat mass.
For example, strength athletes are quickly considered overweight because they are more muscular and therefore weigh more, because, as is well known, muscle is heavier than fat.
The distribution of body fat is also important. Abdominal fat, for example, has been shown to be more harmful to health than hip fat. That's because the annoying extra pounds around the abdomen lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which in turn can cause heart attacks or strokes.
Your body shape also plays a major role when it comes to weight. For example, people with broader shoulders weigh more than those with narrower shoulders. However, this does not mean that they are less healthy.
The BMI is often criticized for the fact that the threshold values were arbitrarily set and that neither physique nor age nor gender are taken into account in the classification according to the WHO.
Important influences on your health
Some studies in the past have shown that many overweight people according to BMI have completely normal blood values and are just as healthy as people with a normal weight.
More meaningful than the BMI with regard to body fat percentage and thus potential health risks is, for example, the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). The BIA devices used measure the resistance in the body, which allows the fat content to be roughly estimated.
However, in addition to body fat percentage, there are other important factors that have a significant impact on your health. These include, for example, stress, exercise, sleeping habits, predisposition and also nutrition.
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Our conclusion is therefore: calculating your BMI alone is not very meaningful as a measure of your health. What counts much more is how well you take care of your body.
A healthy diet, regular exercise, and an all-round balanced lifestyle play a much more important role than the ratio between your height and weight. Do you know your calorie requirement? Use our free calorie calculator for this.
