Is a Body Mass Index of 21.4 good or bad??

Answer 1

That's very good, ideal in fact. HTH : )

Answer 2

BMI is another version of 'height/weight tables', which were devised by american insurance companies (first, Metropolitan) to arbitrarily divide the population into insurance premium bands.

They have never been of any use in determining health risks.

This is because a healthy person might have more fat than an unhealthy person, or more muscle. (It is assumed that 'bigger' people have more fat, but they are actually 'weight training' all the time, so are usually stronger.)

Simple measures such as BMI tend to you focus on meaningless statistics instead of your own health. Cocaine, amphetamines, and cigarettes all suppress appetite, and can cause weight loss (famously, a strategy used by catwalk models) and a lower BMI, but will not improve health.

Recently, several sports clubs have announced that they will no longer use BMI, because it is so misleading (eg. Newcastle Falcons, Chief Coach Steve Black).

Further info : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6040156.stm

Answer 3

It would largely depend on height. The BMI range is an arc, not straight up or down. It is midway through the normal range(18.5 to 25), but a short person would be near the overweight mark, while a tall person would be near the underweight mark.

Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index and click on the chart to the right of the page

Answer 4

In the body mass index scale you are in the normal range, so this is good. Congratulations your weight is healthy for your height.

Answer 5

It's really good well done I saw on tv yesterday that Victoria Beckhams is only 17 too low and they say that cutting out all the fat from her body will age her quicker and leave her with brittle bones hard to believe she conceived at such a low weight actually but yea yours is just peachy.

Answer 6

GOOD! here I will give you some perspective.

18 bmi or lower is underweight and someone who is this low needs to gain weights

Someone who has a bmi of 25.5 or higher is overweight and needs to lose some to prevent diseases associated with being overweight.

Keeping in the low(ish) 20's (20-24) is recomended for woman(plus people in the low 20's tend to be slim but not to thin and with curves)

Answer 7

It's very good.

The healthy range is 20-25.
The normal range is something like 21-27 at the moment (in the UK).

Answer 8

Too low. Should be about 26.
Put some meat on the bones.


Obviously I've upset some people judging by the negative responses to my answer but I do believe that most men would prefer a woman with some padding rather than a stick insect.

C'est la vie.

Answer 9

that's very healthy. 18.5 is the lowest you can be with still be healthy, below it is unhealthy. 18.5-24.9 is the healthy range and you're right around the middle.25 and up is over weight.

Answer 10

That's very good. Keep up the good work.