Healthy Weight Chart - Is BMI Reliable?

By Sam Jones


Lots of visitors to my website have commented on my article relating to the question: Am I Overweight? For this article I did some research relating to the current trends and opinions on measuring healthy weight using the healthy weight chart.

The healthy weight chart is a fairly crude formula that takes into account many general factors relating to the overall body shape of a person.

The healthy weight chart or height weight chart can give a result that leaves some people confused.

These charts work on a very similar way to the more modern BMI scale of calculating your 'healthy weight' based on some mathematics to produce a height to weight ratio.

There are some questions about the accuracy of this system. The height weight chart has been around for several decades and many of us have seen it pinned up on the medical practitioner's wall when we have visited the surgery.

The fact is that due to many changes in lifestyle and the modern diet this age old method may well be due for retirement. In some cases it has produced some very misleading results.

All the information from the height weight chart is for information purposes only and should be used together with other relevant factors to decide if you are within a healthy weight range.

The healthy weight range system was established by collecting data from the population as a whole.

For the vast majority of the population the height weight chart gives a realistic picture of where you are within the range of healthy weight.

Because of the generalised nature of these tools you should always look at other factors besides the height weight chart to be confident in the accuracy of your result.

In some cases the results for certain individuals when using these methods proved to be wrong.

Our subject who was over 6 feet in height was given a false assessment when using the methods discussed above. His physician has said he is at risk of fatty liver disease because of his accumulation of abdominal fat.

If you are tall but carry excessive weight around your abdominal region you should seek medical advice as you may be at increased risk of disease.

Men with an abdominal circumference of above 40 inches who are over 6 feet tall could be mislead as they may be considered in the overweight but not at risk category according to their BMI using the healthy weight chart.

To sum up: Due to known inaccuracies of the measurement systems for height to weight ratio, more doctors have now updated their advice to patients to be aware that carrying weight around the middle part of your body can put you at increased risk of diseases.




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