A child whose BMI is at the 95th percentile or higher for age is considered obese. By the CDC’s definition, a child whose BMI falls between the 85th and 94th percentile for age and gender is considered overweight. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed standard growth charts for boys and girls ages 2-20 that show the distribution of BMI values at each age. ( 16) So in children and teens, the healthy range for BMI varies based on age and gender. It is normal for children to have different amounts of body fat at different ages, and for girls and boys to have different amounts of body fat.

A more recent analysis of Nurses’ Health Study data found that adult weight gain-even after menopause-can increase the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer.

Those who gained more than 22 pounds had an even larger risk of developing these diseases.In the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, for example, middle-aged women and men who gained 11 to 22 pounds after age 20 were up to three times more likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and gallstones than those who gained five pounds or fewer.Weight gain in adulthood increases disease risk even for people whose BMI remains in the normal range. In adults, weight gain usually means adding more body fat, not more muscle. Weight Gain in Adulthood Increases Disease Risk

( 8, 9) There’s also evidence that at a given BMI, the risk of disease is higher in some ethnic groups than others. Risk of developing health problems, including several chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, rises progressively for BMIs above 21. ( 7) With the growth of extreme obesity, researchers and clinicians have further divided Class III into super-obesity (BMI 50-59) and super-super obesity (BMI?60). ( 6)įor clinical and research purposes, obesity is divided into three categories: Class I (30-34.9), Class II (35-39.9) and Class III (?40). ( 5) By 2030, this is expected to rise to more than 3 billion people.

Worldwide, an estimated 1.5 billion adults over the age of 20-about 34 percent of the world’s adult population-are overweight or obese.

( 1) These BMI cut points in adults are the same for men and women, regardless of their age.

Overweight is defined as a body mass index of 25 to 29.9, and obesity is defined as a body mass index of 30 or higher.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that for adults, the healthy range for BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. ( 2) And it is an easy way for clinicians to screen who might be at greater risk of health problems due to their weight.

Research has shown that BMI is strongly correlated with the gold-standard methods for measuring body fat.

But most people are not athletes, and for most people, BMI is a very good gauge of their level of body fat. Muscle and bone are denser than fat, so an athlete or muscular person may have a high BMI, yet not have too much fat. You can calculate BMI on your own, or use an online calculator such as this one, by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.īMI is not a perfect measure, because it does not directly assess body fat.This ratio, called the body mass index (BMI), accounts for the fact that taller people have more tissue than shorter people, and so they tend to weigh more. The most basic definition of overweight and obesity is having too much body fat-so much so that it “presents a risk to health.” ( 1) A reliable way to determine whether a person has too much body fat is to calculate the ratio of their weight to their height squared. Body Mass Index Is a Good Gauge of Body Fat

Calculate bmi in children