Body composition is used to describe the percentages of fat, bone, water and muscle in human bodies. Because muscular tissue takes up less space in our body than fat tissue, our body composition, as well as our weight, determines leanness. Two people of equal height and body weight may look completely different from each other because they have a different body composition. Sometimes even the same person can look and feel completely different with the same weight; this is why we focus on many different body composition indicators with our Lifestyle 365 program. Two techniques that are the most common are waist to hip ratio and body mass index (BMI). We will focus on BMI in this Lifestyle 365 blog series, previously we discussed Waist to Hip Ratio.

Weight

Weight alone doesn't necessarily give a clear indication of good health. Stepping on the scales can't show the difference between weight that come from body fat and weight that come from lean body tissue like muscle and bone.

For long-lasting, healthy weight loss, you need to be sure the loss is from body fat and not healthy muscle tissue or water. With crash diets, much of the weight loss is from loss of water. Once you start eating normally again, back comes the weight. You may find that once you've started a new fitness regime, you don't appear to be losing weight. In fact, you're reducing body fat and replacing it with newly developed pounds of lean muscle tissue, which is denser than fat. Weight alone or BMI can't show you that.



BMI

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a standardized ratio of weight to height, and is used as a general indicator of health in most health fields. Your BMI can be calculated by dividing your weight (in pounds) by your height (in inches) squared and multiplying by a conversion factor of 703.

Formula: weight (lb) / [height (in)]2 x 703

Example: Weight = 150 lbs, Height = 5'5" (65")

Calculation: [150 ÷ (65)2] x 703 = 24.96

< 18.5 = Under Weight
18.5 – 24.9 = Normal Weight
25 - 29.9 = Overweight
> = 30 Obese

BMI Calculator

BMI is a good general indicator but has serious limitation when assessing on an individual level. More than 74 million Americans who are labeled overweight or obese according to their BMI, are actually healthy, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity. Due to BMI’s limitations, we also use other health indicators with our Lifestyle 365 program to determine your health standings.

Your personal fitness program with a coach

With our Lifestyle 365 program, we create a personalized fitness program just for you to help meet your goals and a wellness coaches holds you accountable with weekly check-ins, and tracks your progress with several measurements (HRA), such as BMI and Waist to Hip Ratio. Contact us today to setup a consultation with a wellness coach to get started with Lifestyle 365.