BMI

I'd like to take a minute to write about BMI. BMI is a useful tool to get a general idea on whether your weight is healthy or unhealthy. It is much better than just hearing someone else say that they're 100 pounds, and then deciding that you'd like to have this weight, too. That person may be 5 inches shorter than you!

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. It is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. It's usually pretty accurate, but is only meant as a guideline. People who work out very often and have a larger amount of muscle may find that their BMI is overestimated. Someone who is actually very healthy may be shown as overweight because of their large amount of muscle. This is when body measurements will probably come in handy.

BMI	Category
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5-24.9	Normal Weight
25-29.9	Overweight
30-39.9	Obese
40 and above	Morbidly Obese

Above is an idea of how BMI scores are categorized.
A BMI scoring in the healthy range can reduce your chances of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.




Above is a chart I made. If the chart doesn't go far enough to the right to show your weight, you are overweight. If it doesn't go far enough to the left, you are underweight. (According to medical standards, anyhow.) The weights in pink font are ideal.

I like to keep my BMI at around 19, and in my opinion, a BMI of 22 or over has some room for fat loss. Personally, my highest BMI was 23, at almost 140 lbs, and I had plenty of fat to lose. All it took was a bit of exercise and cutting out the non-stop McDonald's. ;)

BMI is not the only tool you should use to determine whether you are healthy. You should never just use your BMI as the final answer. Your waistline measurement, waist to hip ratio, and food logs are also great things to go by.

Sources:
http://caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.html
http://www.randypollak.com/html/bmi.html