Here are some tools to give you specific numbers to work with as you are planning health improvements.
- BMI - Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a new term to most people. However, it is the measurement of choice for many physicians and researchers studying obesity. BMI uses a mathematical formula that takes into account both a person's height and weight. BMI equals a person's weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (BMI=kg/m2).
- - This number helps give a sense of the presence of fat around the waist, which is associated with more of a health risk for chronic diseases than fat around the hips and thighs.
Your waist can expand even as your weight remains stable, so seeing this number change may be an indication other than the scale that you need to pay more attention to diet and lifestyle for longterm health.
- - Find out how many calories you are burning with various kinds of activity.
- - How many extra calories would you like to burn? Generate a list with a variety of activities that burn approximately the same number of calories.
Copyright 2002 Brigham and Women's Hospital
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