On 2010/01/29, at 12:28 , Harry Wyeth wrote:
Wednesday's (or maybe it was Tuesday) Wall Street Journal carried a
rather long article on body fat which contained a discussion of body
mass index (BMI). To my amazement, BMI was described accurately as
by weight (oops...mass) in kilos divided by height in meters
squared. There was no mention of the convoluted English formula.
I think I will send them a congratulatory email.
HARRY WYETH
Dear Harry,
Some time ago I noticed that the Body Mass Index was a little too
complex for many (perhaps most) folk to calculate. I tried this
approach:
1 Enter you mass in kilograms into your calculator (say 115 kilograms).
2 Touch the divide ÷ button.
3 Enter your height in metres (say 1.85 metres).
4 Touch the divide ÷ button again.
5 Enter your height in metres (still 1.85 metres).
6 Touch the equals = button.
The BMI for our example will be 33.6 kg/m^2 so we find that this
person is obese after we look up a chart.
Even with this step-by-step approach, I still had two problems with
this:
you need a calculator and
you need a chart.
So I invented this alternative method to use as a rule of thumb for
your body mass:
1 Think of your height in metres (say) 1.85 metres.
2 Remove '1 metre' and the decimal point '.'
3 You are left with the number: '85'.
You can consider this as the upper limit of your normal body mass in
kilograms, that is 85 kilograms. You could think of this as your
NaughtinDEX – tee hee!
Any more than this and you will be classified as overweight; 10 % more
than this (93.5 kg) would be classed as overweight, and 20 % more than
this (102 kg) would be classed as obese.
Why is this for adults only? Because this rule does not seem to work
for children.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
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