Body Mass Index
and
Your Healthy Weight Range

"Finally simple BMI charts
and how to use them for weight loss!"

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of your body fat based only on your height and weight and can be used by most adult men and women.

These BMI values are widely used by the medical community to determine if a person is overweight and by how much.


There are however, two situations in which BMI values may not be valid:

- It may overestimate body fat in athletes and those who have a muscular build.

- It may underestimate body fat in older persons and those who have lost muscle mass.

You can calculate your own body mass index using the following formula or by using the handy BMI charts below.

Body Mass Index Chart

To use the chart, find your height in feet and inches at the left side of the chart. Move across this row to the column which has your weight in pounds, at the very top. Your body mass index is the number which intersects your height row with your weight column.

• Use BMI chart A if your weight is between 120 and 185 pounds.
• Use BMI chart B if your weight is between 190 and 250 pounds.

BMI Chart A

BMI Chart B

Body Mass Index Categories

If your BMI is:

• less than 18.5, you are underweight.
• between 18.5 and 24.9, you are at a healthy weight.
• between 25 and 29.9, you are overweight.
• 30 or more, you are obese.

Weight Loss Goal

If you are overweight, use the BMI chart to find out how many pounds you need to loose to get into your healthy weight range:

• Find your height in feet and inches at the left side of the chart.
• Move across this row untill you reach a bmi value of 24.
• Next move directly to the top of the chart to see which weight this 24 body mass index value corresponds to.

This is the weight you want to get down to, so subtract it from your current weight to get your weight loss goal.

Benefits of Maintaining a Healthy Body Weight

You should always strive to maintain a health weight, since being overweight greatly increases your risk of getting many diseases such as:

• Type 2 Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Gallstones
• Arthritis
• Stroke
• Heart Disease

According to a report issued in 2004 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in three American adults is not only overweight, but is obese. There are twice as many obese people now as there were just three decades ago, and it is mainly due to the fact that we are eating more and exercising less!

A more recent study published in December 2006 by the American Journal of Epidemiology concluded that belly fat is better than BMI at judging obesity related heart disease risk. Heart disease risk was found to increase with increasing abdominal fat even among men or women of normal weight or BMI values.
So maintaining a healthy BMI along with a normal waist circumference is key to reducing coronary heart disease.
Ref: American Journal of Epidemiology 2006 164(12):1150-1159 ( web link )

Taking apple cider vinegar along with regular exercise, eating normal portions of nutritious food, and reducing the consumption of refined and processed food is a sure way to loose weight naturally and maintain a normal BMI and waist circumference.

Lose Belly Fat Quickly

The quickest way to lose your dangerous stomach fat or just flatten your tummy is to eat the right kinds of food and to do the proper types of exercises.

But what foods should you always avoid and which exercises really work to reduce excess stomach fat?

Here are are few helpful hints:

• Certain foods such as soy protein, "diet" drinks and others can actually increase your stomach fat.
• Exercises like crunches and sit-ups actually do NOT flatten your stomach effectively.
• It's best to do your stomach exercises at the end of your cardio workout because the stomach muscles stabilize your back and you could pre-exhaust them if you do your stomach exercises first.

Many more related tips and detailed information on how to force your body to burn fat more effectively is included in an excellent book called The Fat Burning Kitchen co-authored by Mike Geary who is both a Certified Personal Trainer and a Certified Nutrition specialist, and Catherine Ebeling a Nutrition researcher.

This book is filled with about 100 pages of information on the best foods to eat to reduce belly fat, balance blood sugar, and satisfy your appetite. Mike and Catherine also discuss some of the popular types of food found in grocery stores that are NOT healthy, and actually CAUSE weight gain.

So if you want to lose that embarrassing belly fat quickly or finally flatten your stomach, I recommend that you act on the information you'll find in The Fat Burning Kitchen. (Currently you can get this book for just a small shipping fee.)