![]() ![]() Get advice from your midwife or GP if you're concerned about your weight. You should not use BMI as a measure if you're pregnant. For example, adults of South Asian origin may have a higher risk of some health problems, such as diabetes, with a BMI of 23, which is usually considered healthy. Your ethnic group can also affect your risk of some health conditions. Muscle is much denser than fat, so very muscular people, such as heavyweight boxers, weight trainers and athletes, may be a healthy weight even though their BMI is classed as obese. Accuracy of BMIīMI takes into account natural variations in body shape, giving a healthy weight range for a particular height.Īs well as measuring your BMI, healthcare professionals may take other factors into account when assessing if you're a healthy weight. If you want to calculate your BMI, you can use the healthy weight calculator. between 25 and 29.9 – you're in the overweight range.between 18.5 and 24.9 – you're in the healthy weight range.below 18.5 – you're in the underweight range.BMI rangesįor most adults, an ideal BMI is in the 18.5 to 24.9 range.įor children and young people aged 2 to 18, the BMI calculation takes into account age and gender as well as height and weight. The BMI calculation divides an adult's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. 2000 105(3, pt 1):671-680.The body mass index (BMI) is a measure that uses your height and weight to work out if your weight is healthy. ![]() Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents. Lipid screening and cardiovascular health in childhood.Pediatrics. 2003 35:236-248.ĭaniels SR, Greer FR Committee on Nutrition. Body image, weight, and food choices of Latina women and their youngchildren. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides a simple online child and. 2003 111(5, pt 2):1226-1231.Ĭontento IR, Basch C, Zybert P. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height. Maternal perceptions of weight status of children.Pediatrics. Maynard LM, Galuska DA, Blanck HM, Serdula MK. Maternal perceptions of overweight preschool children.Pediatrics. 2008 47:76-80.īaughcum AE, Chamberlin LA, Deeks CM, et al. Body perception: do parents, their children, and theirchildren’s physicians perceive body image differently? J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. Ilene Fennoy, MD, MPH Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Columbia University, New York References:Ĭhaimovitz R, Issenman R, Moffat T, Persad R. Children with a BMI just above the 85th percentile, who are classified only as overweight, need cardiovascular and, in some cases, diabetes risk screening.5,6 These children are easily misclassified on visual inspection.1 I, therefore, strongly urge physicians to use BMI and growth charts to determine by objective criteria who may need further screening for comorbidities as well as counseling regarding reduction in BMI. In addition, screening for comorbidities is, in part, a function of a child’s overweight status. ![]() Weight maintenance as they grow in height. This is particularly helpful in the treatment of young children and of those who are merely overweight, in whom the goal may not be weight loss but weight maintenance as they grow in height. In fact, at least 1 study documents misperception by physicians of about one-third of children.1 Certainly, studies have established that parents have only a limited ability to identify that their child is obese.2-4 Moreover, as you point out, BMI is an excellent tool for tracking results of weight management efforts and can thus serve as both a learning tool and a monitor of progress for child and family alike. I would like to point out that there is no documentation that visual inspection clearly and reliably identifies those children who are obese, especially at mild levels of obesity. You raise the question of whether we should limit use of BMI in children to population studies and simply use inspection as our screening tool, particularly since intervention is relatively unsuccessful. Nonetheless, given that treatment of childhood obesity is so seldom satisfactory, even this use seems of negligible value.- John DiTraglia, MD Portsmouth, Ohio It might be argued that BMI does have one useful application in the clinical care of children: that is, it may be a more reliable indicator than visual inspection of progress made by a still-growing obese child whose weight control efforts are being monitored. However, for determining whether an individual child is obese, visual inspection-even from a distance of 30 yd-is superior to calculating his or her BMI. It is useful in population studies, providing a measure of “fatness” that can be easily plotted and compared. Body mass index (BMI) facilitates meaningful comparison of the weights of children of varying heights.
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