Ideal Body Weight

So what is the ideal body weight for a person? This question is asked by millions of people all around the world to their doctors and dieticians. The other questions normally asked by patients are whether they look obese or not. Most of the times the dietician will have a look at your body and tell you whether you have that ideal body weight or not. However for a more accurate analysis, a dietician or a doctor will do a BMI test. BMI test is also known as Body Mass Index test. The other method used to calculate whether a person has ideal body weight is the waist and the hip ratio method. In the next paragraph we will discuss both the methods. BMI BMI is calculated by applying the following formula. BMI = weight in Kg / height in meters x height in meters. Hence if your height is 160 cm and your weight is 52 kg, then BMI is calculated as 52 / (1.6 x 1.6) = 20.31 Based on the BMI a person can be termed as obese, underweight or having ideal body weight. BMI is below 20 : This indicates that you are below the ideal body weight mark and you have a low amount of body fat. BMI between 20 and 22 : This indicates ideal body weight and ideal amount of body fat. BMI between 22 and 25 : This can still be considered an acceptable range though not exactly ideal body weight. BMI between 25 and 30 : This mean that you are obese and above the ideal body weight mark and steps have to be taken soon to come under normal weight range. BMI over 30 : This indicates that you are far above the ideal body weight mark and steps must be taken immediately to reduce your weight quickly. Waist Hip Ratio In this case the waist and the hip measurements are taken when the person is in the standing position to find out if the person is in the ideal body weight range or not. The waist is generally measured around the naval area and the hip is measured around the broadest part of the hips to check for ideal body weight. The waist measurement in centimeter is divided by the hip measurement in centimeter to get the waist hip ratio for ideal body weight check. If the calculation comes to 0.7 to 0.8 then it is termed as ideal body weight. It is not only sufficient to have a normal BMI but it necessary to have a good waist hip ratio as well along with ideal body weight. Both these methods are widely used to check whether you have ideal body weight or you are underweight or obese.