Unfortunately the Body Mass Index or BMI has become the standard way that the government and most big health companies determine if someone is overweight however this simplistic calculation reveals nothing about the actual amount of fat on your body. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight by the square of their height and the resulting number is supposed to be an indicator of body fat percentage. This is like trying to gauge the speed of a car based only upon the size and weight of the car which would be ridiculous because there are too many other factors involved that need to be considered to obtain an accurate estimate of the speed of a car. Only using a person’s height and weight to determine body fat level is extremely inaccurate which is why many athletes who actually possess low body fat levels have high BMI numbers indicating high body fat. On the other hand some women who have little muscle and a high level of fat may actually have a low BMI number because they do not weigh much for their height. Leave the BMI numbers to the beauracrats who care more about numbers than the truth and go get your body fat tested using either a skinfold measurement or underwater weighing. These are the only accurate ways to know exactly what your real body fat percentage is which is something you need to know to accurately access your weight loss needs.