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Louisiana Action for Healthy Kids - Team Nutrition
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Every child is different in growth rate and body shape. Heredity affects body height, weight, and shape. For children and adolescents, Body Mass Index-for-age (BMI) is a screening tool used by health care professionals to determine if a child is growing at a good rate. Boys and girls differ in body fatness as they mature; therefore, BMI is gender and age specific. In addition, BMI is used differently with children than with adults.
BMI is used to compare height and weight to predict whether a student is tending to be underweight, overweight or obese. Students can use their BMI values to decide whether they need to make food choices that are higher or lower in calories or whether or not they might need to burn more calories through physical activity. High BMIs can lead to diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer that are the leading, preventable causes of death in Louisiana and the US.
There are plenty of BMI calculators on the Internet. The accuracy of these BMI calculators never is certain. If you suspect that you are overweight or at risk of being overweight, then seek help from a medical professional.
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