Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Importance of Medical Scales and BMI

Many individuals use medical scales to judge their progress when it comes to dieting. However, this data can be inaccurate in helping you reach your goals if you are not taking the rest of the equation into account. There are several considerations to use when you use scales. First, the time of the day you use a scale is a major factor. Also, the BMI (Body Mass Index) is another extremely important factor. If you use those two in conjunction you will reap the most benefits.

First, many people use medical scales at different times of the day and this is a detrimental mistake, if you want an accurate snapshot of your diet progress, or even your day-to-day work. The human body’s weight fluctuates vastly throughout the day. Try to aim for the same time every morning. The idea behind this is your body establishes equilibrium at the same time every day. As a result, you are going to get a great baseline to work from. Then you can make better-informed decisions about your exercise plan, diet, and many other factors that control your weight.

BMI Chart for Medical Scales
Next, you want to be entirely certain you learn all of the intricacies of BMI, or Body Mass Index. This is a key concept that puts your weight into perspective when considering your heights. Basically this measure allows you to compare your height and your weight at the same time. The term, “obese”, gets tossed around very loosely. Many people do not know that the word is actually a scientific measure from the BMI chart. If you fall in the red category in the following chart you are obese. Take a moment to see where you are in proportion to your height and weight. There are a lot of things that can impact this number. Some people have a more dense bone structure. Sometimes the composition of the body itself needs to be taken into account in order to truly understand the benefits as well as the limitations of BMI.

There are some exceptions to the rule. Certain bodybuilders have actually discounted the importance of BMI as a measure of complete success. For instance, because muscle is a dense fiber, it weighs much more than fat. So, a muscular individual with an extremely low body fat percentage will, in fact, register a very high BMI. Does this mean that person is obese? Of course not! He or she is at the pinnacle of health. The scale shows that person’s weight. So, this shows that though the BMI is effective in telling a lot of the story, there is still much that remains to be told. Use the scale as just a guide, then BMI to hone in on your findings, and finally use body fat percentage to ensure your information is consistent.

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