What Does Your Body Weight Really Tell You About Your Health

Your dietary habits significantly affect your body weight, body composition, and physical health. Recent studies show that over 60 percent of Americans are overweight or obese predisposing them to various diseases and degenerative problems.  But what does overweight really mean?  By public health standards being overweight is weight that is higher than what is considered as a healthy weight for a given height as determined by your Body Mass Index or BMI.  Categories for BMI fall into the following:

Underweight =  less than 18.5  
Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
Overweight = 25–29.9
Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

It is generally assumed that people in the overweight and obese BMI categories are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and a host of other degenerative problems. But, does BMI give the best indication of the health risk associated with your body weight?  I think body composition is a much better indicator for associating body weight with health risks because it takes into account both muscle weight and fat weight. Please click here to see the entire post