I'm confused about BMI. What does it mean? I was at 38.4 when I started and am at 31.6 now... But that does that mean? Is that like a % of body fat or something? I'm confused... I know someone on here can make me understand!

The BMI (Body Mass Index) is a glorified Height & Weight chart. And that is all.

It has nothing to do with Body Fat Percentage. Nothing to do with Bone Weight or Muscle Mass.

You put in your height, you put in your weight and it spits out a number that says whether you're too heavy or too light for where you're "supposed" to be. Nothing more than a height/weight chart would tell you.

Huh, so basically it means nothing... :-) Thanks!

Most bodybuilders with under 15% bodyfat are considered obese according to the BMI!

I don't go by BMI at all. I think right now, my BMI is just over 25 which still puts in the overweight category, which I am not. It does not take into consideration the amount of lean body mass or how heavy your frame is. As far as I am concerned, it is a completely meaningless number.

I agree with everyone else. I read some where that according to the BMI chart Arnold Swartzenager (sp?) is obese??

I take it with a grain of salt!

My BMI (body mass index) is 39.1. It's a way to estimate body fat.
The government link is http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/
Read the limitations so you'll understand what the others are saying.

40 or over is morbidly obese.
30-40 is obese.
Under 30 is overweight.
Healthy weight is in the lower 20s.

So I've achieved the goal of no longer being morbidly obese.
I can't wait to be just overweight!

BMI is a tool used especially in clinical settings to gauge the relationship between height and weight for the average person and it is applicable in most situations. As with most things it doesn't apply to everyone and the group most noted to be excluded are body builders. However, they make up only a small percentage of the population so BMI is still a good indicator of health risk but is only one of the many other indicators such as blood pressure, weight, cholesterol level, etc. used to adequately assess health.

Where it becomes a real issue is if you have a BMI in the overweight-obese range, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels etc. It could be useful in this instance for one to choose a decreasing BMI as the indicator they were going to use to gauge success at achieving a healthier state and more likely than not the other risk factors would improve as they lowered their BMI.

BMI is just meant to be a way to estimate a person's threat of obesity-related health problems. However, it is poorly related to "fatness", and doesn't account for a person's muscle mass to fat ratio.

oh, cool. I just checked my bmi again for my current weight, and I'm just on the line of morbidly obese.

My goal has been to reach 233 by my Dec 12- that's 55 pounds on my 4 month anniversary of dieting. If I reach it, it's also the weight I need to become obese instead of morbidly obese!!!! yay!