The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a data that you will obtain by your weight and height. This number pretends to indicate a value of healthy weight, comparing it with the obtained ranges by studies that have been done to a determined quantity of people.

Since 1980, the BMI has been used as a nutritional indicator. This establishes that a high BMI indicates that you will develop illness associated to overweight.  It can’t be applied to all the people, since these studies left out: children, pregnant woman, elders or people that are missing any limb.

The BMI is calculated dividing the weight in kilograms by the height in square meters (Kg/m²) (in metrics units).

For example, a person that weight 190 lbs. (in metrics is 86 Kilograms) and is 5′ 9 inches tall (in metrics is 176 centimeters or 1.76 meters):

• BMI = (Kg/m²)
• Weight: 86 Kilograms
• Height: 1.76 meters
• Square height: 3,09
• Solving the formula:
• 86 Kilograms / 3,09 = 27,8 of BMI

By the World Health Organization (WHO), the result must be compared with these ranges:

• < 16 : Severely underweight
• 16 a 16.9 : light weight
• 17 a 18.4 : low weight
• 18.5 a 24.9 : normal weight (healthy)
• 25 a 29.9 : overweight
• 30 a 34.9 : cronic overweight (obesity degree I)
• 35 a 39.9 : premorbid obesity (obesity degree II)
• 40 a 45 : morbid obesity (obesity degree III)
• > 45 : hypermorbid obesity (obesity degree IV)

For this example, this person will be overweight, and almost reaching the obesity degree I. But what would happen if this person has a body fat percent of 10% and a great muscle structure? The BMI becomes totally useless, since the fat percent indicates more than if a person is healthy. And the weight in this case comes from the muscle mass and maybe big bones. This BMI is just away from reality.

The BMI is a data very used by the campaigns or methods against obesity, since it’s so easy to calculate and with this alarm the person: “Calculate your BMI over here in our super automatic calculator… You have 30 of BMI, You are obese! You could die tomorrow if you don’t buy today our method to weight loss right now!”.

Not true and the worst is that the BMI doesn’t distinguish race, ethnic, physical condition, corporal composition, age, gender, etc. There are things that people doesn’t even say when they are talking in the BMI issue, is that these ranges are for people between 25 and 34 years old, where every 10 years you add a point and is considered normal.

The BMI and also the ideal weight are data that we shouldn’t consider, since they don’t indicate the reality of our organism. I already told you that if you want to lose weight in a few days, take diuretics and you will eliminate a lot of liquid. But this is not healthy at all. Probably you will reach a lower BMI, but the fat that you want to eliminate will remain there.

One of the keys to keep a method to slim down (burn fat), is to individualize each person path. Remember the third body law to slim down fast: “Every person is different”.

Which is the data that I should considerer?

You must focus in only one data that will indicate what you really need to know: “The corporal fat percent”. This is the number that will show you how much of your body is fat and how much is lean mass. This is all you need to know (at the beginning) and forget about: your weight, BMI, size, height, etc, as indicators of your progress. You must not establish objectives with these data either.

If you want to slim down in a healthy way, you must establish an objective to reduce your corporal fat percent without losing your lean mass.