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For centuries the definition of fat has been up for grabs. A hundred years ago, a man's bulging belly or a woman carrying 20 extra pounds signified wealth, desirability and high social status. But if today's rail-thin supermodels were transported back to those stodgy times, their figures would doubtless be deemed undernourished and under-sexy.
In more recent decades, insurance companies set general standards in the United States for healthy height and weight. But their definitions of overweight and obese have grown skinnier over the years.
So How Do You Know If You're Fat?
And how do you figure out what's the best weight for your health? Sure, you could stand naked in front of a full length mirror for a self-evaluation, but you may only focus on your face and screen out the rest of your body the ultimate denial. Or, you could ask your insurance company for a copy of its height and weight tables and see how you rate. Or, you can have an exercise physiologist measure your body fat level.
Perhaps the best way to know how your body fits into the fat spectrum is to do as experts such as the National Center For Health Statistics, insurance companies, and physicians do, and use the Body Mass Index, or BMI.
The BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height, in meters. While the National Center For Health Statistics and the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention offer guidelines for evaluating overweight and obesity, it must be noted that these still apply only to general populations and not individuals.
Calculate Your BMI
We've made it easy to calculate your BMI by translating the metrics to pounds. Try it!
- Multiply your weight in pounds by 703.
- Multiply your height in inches by itself.
- Divide the first number by the second.
- Round to the nearest whole number: that's your BMI.
What Does Your BMI Mean? 
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