Do the BMI numbers lie?

By Kyle Hotz, ACE Owner, Founder; Higher Heights Fitness

I’m a big believer that knowledge is power. When it comes to their health, people should know their numbers.

But there’s one number I’ve never been a fan of: BMI, or body mass index. It’s simply an equation of your height and weight. It doesn’t take into consideration factors such as muscle mass, bone density or body composition. It’s misleading and oftentimes inaccurate.

Take me, for example. I’m six-feet tall and weigh 195 pounds. According to the BMI, I’m classified as obese. In reality, I’m in excellent physical condition, with 93 pounds of muscle mass.

Muscle weighs nearly twice as much as fat. Building lean muscle should be a goal for everyone. The BMI also does not take into account bone density and muscle around the organs, which are improved with strength training.

With our InBody Composition Analyzer, we can accurately measure your muscle vs. fat ratio, as well as other valuable metrics that help us as trainers customize a workout to achieve your goals. Oftentimes clients tell us weight loss is their goal, but we explain to them a smarter goal would be fat loss, because without monitoring your fat and muscle levels, you could actually be losing muscle, which is never what we want.

Healthy body fat ranges are 12-18% in men ages 21-39 and 16-23% over the age of 39. For women, the ideal range is 19-25% for ages 21-39 and 22-29% over the age of 39.

After we take an initial scan on the analyzer, we do follow-up ones every six to eight weeks to mark our progress and adjust the training.

Higher Heights Fitness is located at 8251 Chippewa Road in the back of the Heinen’s Plaza in Brecksville. The studio offers one-on-one training, small-group training and nutritional sessions. For more information, call 440-630-9497, or visit the website at HigherHeightsFitness.com.