Weight Loss Articles & Resources
Resources: Glossary of Terms
BMI (Body Mass Index) =WEIGHT(kg) / HEIGHT(m)2 (Weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters).The BMI is a guide to nutritional status:
Healthy BMI is 20-25 for men and 18-25 for women.
BMI 16-17.9 moderately underweight.
BMI less than 16 is severely underweight.
BMI 25-29.9 is overweight, 30-34.9 obese, 35-39.9 severely obese, 40- 49.9 morbidly obese and greater than 50 super obese.
Whilst these are useful definitions they need to be interpreted in context. That is, we need to take into account body type, muscle bulk and so on. For example, Arnold Schwarzenneger, at the peak of his body building career had a BMI of 34.
However, there is a considerable body of evidence linking a BMI over 25 with health hazards.
Kilojoules: This is simply a unit of measurement of energy.
1 Kilojoule (1000 joules) = 239 Calorie
For those of a scientific bent, a Cal is a measure of energy, sufficient to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C at 1 atmosphere pressure.
In relation to nutrition, we are interested in the amount of energy the body requires to function, and thus we are able to formulate a diet with excess energy if we wish to gain weight, or a deficit if we wish to lose weight.
The scientifically defined calorie is a very small energy unit that is inconvenient to use because an average serving of any food typically provides thousands of these calories. For this reason, when speaking about food, we say 'calorie' when we mean 'kilocalorie'. For example, when you see '200 calories' on a food label, it actually means 200 kilocalories, or 200,000 calories using the strictly scientific definition. The same is true for physical activities: when a chart says that 30 minutes of vigorous walking burn 370 calories we mean that, in fact, 370 kilocalories (or 370,000 'scientific' calories) are burned. In this article and in the software we keep to the popular usage. When we say 'calorie' we always mean 'kilocalorie'.
Calorie vs. Kilojoule
The energy value of food can also be measured in kilojoules. 1 calorie equals 4.184 kilojoules (kJ). To convert kilojoules to calories, divide the number of kilojoules by 4.184. To convert calories to kilojoules, multiply the number of calories by 4.184.
