Do You Know Your Fat Mass Index?
Monday, September 21, 2009 23:53
Most people have heard about the body mass index (BMI), but what you may not know about are the new and more accurate ways to calculate your health. Some of these indicators like the “fat mass index (FMI)” are just showing up in the news now and may be something worth looking into.
Although BMI has been the one-size fits all approach to fitting people into healthy or unhealthy weight categories for many years now these more sophisticated measures will hopefully take its place both in the doctor’s office and in better extracting useful research data.
In addition to FMI and BMI leading health experts are hoping researchers use and look at the following factors when examining health and obesity data:
• Total body fat percentage
• Ratio of percent fat in trunk to percent fat in legs
• Trunk-limb fat mass ratio
• Lean mass to height squared
• Appendicular lean mass to height squared
• Total body bone mineral density and content
• Subtotal body bone mineral density and content
To find additional information on new ways of determining your health see the full article.
Primary source: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
Source reference: Kelly T, et al "DXA whole body reference data from the 2008 NHANES data release" ASBMR 2009; Abstract FR0285.