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Healthy Weight - How healthy is my weight?
Your BMI, or Body Mass Index, is used to calculate the amount of body fat you have, and whether it is healthy or not. So how does it work?
Your BMI is calculated as weight (in kilograms) divided by height squared (in metres). Click here to find out what your BMI is.
Below is a chart that shows a range of healthy and unhealthy BMI’s, and what having each one can do to your health:
| Classification | European and Other |
Maori and Pacific |
Risk of health problems |
| Underweight | <18.5 | <18.5 | Increased |
| Healthy weight |
18.5 - 24.9 | 18.5 - 25.9 | Lower risk |
| Overweight | 25 - 29.9 | 26 - 31.9 | Increased |
| Obese | 30+ | 32+ | Greatly increased |
It’s important to know that these are guides only. Your health risk doesn’t suddenly increase dramatically when you go from a BMI of 29 to a BMI of 30 for example. It actually works on a continuum, so that as your BMI increases past the healthy range (or decreases below it), your risk of health problems increases too.
The BMI does have some limitations: for example your average All Black would fall into the obese category. Because it’s only using height and weight, BMI can’t distinguish between fat and muscle mass, but given most of us are not built like your average All Black it’s not that much of a problem.
Ask yourself this question: “Am I a heavily-muscled elite athlete or body builder?” If the answer is “no”, the BMI will be a pretty good guide for you.
Courtesy of Healthy Food Guide. For recipes and great advice head to www.healthyfood.co.nz
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