Body Mass Index Paper

Body mass index or (BMI) is a key index that relates a person 's body weight to their height. The body mass index is a person 's weight in kilograms (kg) divided by their height in meters (m) squared. The National Institute of Health uses the body mass index to define normal weight, overweight and obesity. Overweight is considered is a person having a body mass index of 27.3% or more for women and 27.8 % or more for men. Obesity using the BMI index is defined as a BMI of 30 and above, which is about 30 pounds overweight. A person being very muscular is an exception to 30 percent being obese as there BMI can be much higher, but they would not be at risk because they are in good healthy shape. For those that don’t know muscle weighs more than fat. It is beneficial to calculate your own body mass index (BMI), so you can see where you stand. To me it would be good to calculate your BMI on a monthly basis so that you can track your progress if you’re following a healthy eating and workout plan. On the other side would be those people seeing just how out of shape they are, if your BMI is 40 then you know you are 40 pounds overweight. To calculate my BMI I need my height which is 6 feet zero inches and my weight 182 pounds. I then divide my weight 182 pounds by my height squared, which the result is 24.7. At 24.9 I would be considered overweight slightly, but to me being so close is ok because my goal with working out over the past year has been to add muscle. I actually weight more now than what I did 6 months ago when I began to work out. Again muscle weighs more than fat. With me my goal is to gain muscle. I can achieve this goal through weight training, and regular cardiovascular activity to keep my muscles flexible as well as building strength. I also need to eat a large amount of protein to give my muscles the rebuilding block they need to grow stronger. It is important to set the right goals for own lifestyle when controlling your weight. By following a healthy protein-filled eating plan, having portion sizes that allow me to gain muscle and have enough energy to fuel my workouts I can remain healthy. With a person trying to lose weight it is important to control portion size, and calorie intake. To achieve my goals of gaining strength and muscle I need to eat more than the recommended daily amount of calories. According to the dine-wise website calorie calculator for men for me to maintain a weight of 182 pounds I need to have 3,293 calories per day. This is what I need to stay healthy with my active lifestyle accounted for. This calculator also allows you to enter in your desired weight, which mine is 192 pounds. This would mean I need to eat 3,399 calories a day at least to gain 10 pounds of muscle. This put together with weight lifting and remaining active will help me to stay lean, and gain muscle at the same time, achieving my health goals.

Works Cited
Calorie counter. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.dinewise.com/caloriecounter
Healthy eating plan. (2011). Retrieved from http;//www.nhlbinih.gov/health

Cited: Calorie counter. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.dinewise.com/caloriecounter Healthy eating plan. (2011). Retrieved from http;//www.nhlbinih.gov/health