Ideal Body Weight Calculator

W hat is the ideal body weight? This is the weight which will grant you the longest life possible and with the least cases of diseases attacks. This statement will only hold in theory. Traditionally, the ideal weight used to be measured as BMI. Simply, BMI is the body weight divided by height. Ideal body weight is computed based on fundamental variables of gender, height and age. Computation of ideal weight has been a subject of debate for so many years. This has seen the creation of numerous formulas and tables all geared towards measuring the ideal weight. How the ideal weight calculator works: Key in the details of body type, gender and height in the calculator. Perhaps you are wondering what to enter as body type; this is simply your own discretional assessment of your skeletal structure, whether heavy and wide or thin and small. While doing this kind of personal assessment, body fat must be ignored. Mostly, people base their assessment on their looks during their early days. Calculator’s background: The key determinant of ideal body weight is the optional Body Mass Index (BMI) with regards to the possibility of long life characterized by the least diseases. According to recent studies, overweight BMI values are characterized by low mortality rates. Nevertheless, obesity has other problems attached to it which are not necessarily related to mortality; such include no fatal diseases, osteoarthritis amongst others. The calculator is therefore configured to take into consideration lowest mortality alongside other complications associated with obesity. Additional feature for adjusting the body structure is very important because people with heavy or light skeletal frames tend to have misleading BMI values. There are so many formulas out there for calculating ideal body weight; one common feature of these current calculators is that they take into account body fat levels. Therefore, ideal body weight=lean body mass divided by 1(less desired body fat level) What is lean body mass? Commonly referred to as LBM; this is computed as body weight less the product of body fat percentage and body weight. [Photo: www.flickr.com]