Knowing your body mass index - BMI - can be helpful when determining your health and fitness level. But calculating BMI for a person who has suffered from limb loss can be challenging. How do you determine your BMI while missing a limb?
Here is a simple guide to BMI and calculating this figure with a missing limb or limbs.
What Is BMI?
As you probably already know, BMI is a measurement of your weight divided by your height. Typically, this is measured in kilograms over meters.
Contrary to popular belief, your BMI number does not indicate your body fat. Rather it can help determine what weight category you fall into which correlates with your level of health. Categories include underweight, normal, healthy, overweight, and obese.
As dictated by the Center of Disease Control, a Body Mass Index below 18.5 is considered underweight. A BMI over 25.0 is overweight, and above 30.0 is obese. Ideally, healthy weight status occurs when your BMI is between 18.5 and 25.0.
How is My BMI Affected by Limb Loss?
Those with limb loss often find it difficult to determine your BMI. Amputations result in patients inherently losing some weight, on average around 1 to 5 kilograms depending on the limb.
As someone with limb loss, you can calculate your body weight by dividing your body weight by the percentage of the amputated limb subtracted from a total of 100. Therefore, your body weight would be given by this simple formula:
For example, if you were to lose 5% of your body weight as a result of amputation, your body weight as calculated by this formula would be your present weight divided by 95, then multiplied by 100. Don’t worry about including the weight of your prosthetic or orthotic device.
Finally, to calculate your BMI, you would take that number and divide it by your height.
Let BioTech Limb and Brace Help
Losing a limb can make calculating your BMI a bit confusing. If you are having difficulty figuring it all out, our expert team is here to help!
Your quality of life and health are very important to us. Contact BioTech Limb and Brace today. Let us help you recognize your possibilities!