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Common Body Mass Indicator, BMI Calculators are not enough to determine if your kid is overweight or underweight. You need a BMI-For-Age calculator that is designed specifically for children from 2 to 19 years old. So what is BMI? Much research has shown that BMI directly correlates with a person's body fat. Since BMI is easy to calculate it is used all around the world to screen adults for weight related health risks. BMI is just your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters. So if you are 5 foot 10, 1.78 meters, tall and you weigh 190 pounds, 86.4 kg, then your BMI is 86.4 / (1.78 x 1.78) = 27.3; You can also calculate your BMI in English units using the following formula. Take your weight in pounds multiply by 703 and then divide by the square of your height in inches. So if you are 6 feet tall, 72 inches, and weight 200 pounds then you would take 200 x 703 / (72 x 72) = 27.1 What is percentile? How is it determined? Where adults can use the BMI directly to determine their weight category and health risk it is more complicated for children and teens. Since body fat changes so quickly in children and between boys and girls you must determine your child's percentile. So Child-Teen BMI calculators ask for your child's gender and age so they can compare your Child's BMI with thousands of other kids with the same age and sex. Where your child ranks is their percentile. So if your child's BMI is 60 then for their age and gender their BMI is greater than 59% of their peers and less than 39%. You can either use a chart to determine the percentile or some calculators will use the data gathered from tens of thousands of kids to calculate your child's percentile based on their BMI, their age, and their gender. How is BMI and Percentile interpreted for children and teens? For kids under 20 years old their BMI along with their age and sex is used to determine their percentile. Their percentile is then used to determine their weight class as follows.0 to < 5 is underweight5 to < 85 is healther85 to < 95 is At Risk>= 95 is overweight What is a healthy weight range for my child? You can use either a chart specific for your child's age and gender to determine the weight for them to be at the 5th percentile and the weight for them to be at the 85th percentile. This wide weight range would be considered their healthy weight range. When is this method of screening a child for weight related problems inaccurate? Percentile data only covers children >= 2 years and < 20 years old; BMI and thus percentile can be misleading if the child is very athletic with much muscle mass; BMI and thus percentile can be misleading if the child is over seven feet tall. Why is childhood overweight considered a health problem? Research has indicated that being overweight increases an adults likelihood of acquiring each of the following by about 100%: Heart Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Asthma, Sleep Apnea, and center types of cancer. Other research has indicated that overweight children and teens are more likely to become obese as adults. Furthermore being overweight as a child leads to social discrimination which can lead to low self esteem as well as depression. What causes obesity and overweight? Scientifically speaking eating more calories than your body's muscles use results in the excess calories being stored as fat in your body. The number of people overweight and the number of obese people are rising. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the reasons for this mainly fall into two categories. 1) Global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals, and micro nutrients. {Comment: We cannot blame the manufacturers of processed foods who have had to remove the vitamins, minerals, and micro nutrients in order to make their products last longer and they have increased the density of fats and sugars so will like the taste and buy their product.} 2) Trends towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization. {Comment: It's obvious that having machines do the work while we sit at a desk, having cars transport us almost to the door at work, store, restaurant, or home reduces walking, and living in cities or suburbs reduces almost all needs for any physical activities. No wonder we are getting fatter.}
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About the Article Author
Author Dave Davis has written many articles on weight loss. For an automated child BMI Calculator go to Child-Teen-BMI-Calculator. For information on how you can develop your own perfect diet plan MyDietForWeightLoss.com
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