Let’s talk about the problems with using BMI (body mass index) as a weight or health measurement.
One of the biggest problems with BMI is that it doesn’t tell you how much fat you have versus muscle. It also can’t give you much of an idea of what's going on with your overall health.
Other common measurements:
• BMR (basal metabolic rate): Measures how fast you’re burning calories
• TDEE (total daily energy expenditure): Measures the quantity of energy being burned
• Keto calculator: Measures BMR and TDEE and can tell you how many calories and how many macronutrients you should consume in a day based on your BMR and TDEE
Many times, people look at how much weight they lose per week as a measurement of how healthy their metabolism is. However, this isn’t a good idea.
A big principle to consider is: get healthy to lose weight—don’t lose weight to get healthy. In the process of exercising and getting healthy, you’re going to gain muscle.
Muscle is heavier than fat. This means that some weeks you may not lose any weight, but your clothes are still going to feel more and more loose.
Instead of a BMI test, there are many other helpful tests you can do to help measure your overall health.
One of the best assessments of overall health is the metabolic test. This test can look at your metabolic pathways in real-time. It can provide great data to help professionals understand what could happen down the road, so you can do something about it now.