Nutrition Information
Firm Body
by Pierre S. Aoukar, MD and Hratch L. Karamanoukian, MD Posted: March 12 Obesity is an independent risk factor for heart disease. This means that even if you don’t have any other risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol or smoking, you are still at higher risk for developing heart disease because you have more fat on your body than you need. The Framingham Heart Study and the NHANES studies showed a direct link between truncal or central obesity and increased risk for heart disease. In other words, fat is more dangerous around your waist than around your hips. That “beer belly” is a lot more innocuous than it looks. You’re BMI or body mass index, besides your mirror, is also a good indicator of whether or not you need to firm up. BMI is measured in kilograms per meters squared, which takes your weight into consideration with your height. You can calculate it yourself.
Body Mass Index (BMI) |
WHO Classification |
Popular Description |
<18.5 kg/m2 |
underweight |
thin |
18.5-24.9 kg/m2 |
normal |
"healthy", "normal", or
"acceptable" weight |
25.0-29.9 kg/m2 |
grade 1 overweight |
overweight |
30.0-39.9 kg/m2 |
grade 2 overweight |
obese |
>40.0 kg/m2 |
grade 3 overweight |
morbidly obese |
Reference: Firm Body, Excerpt from the book: Everything Good For The Heart: The A to Z Guide, Aoukar PS and Karamanoukian HL. Magalhaes Scientific Press Additional Notes: World Health Organization Committee for the classification of overweight (WHO Expert Committee. Physical Status: the use and interpretation of anthropometry. WHO Technical Report Series no. 854. Geneva: WHO, 1995)
http://www.chd-taskforce.de/guidelines/kap22.htm
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