Definition of Childhood Obesity
Body Mass Index (BMI) is often used to determine obesity in children and in adults. BMI is most commonly determined as a ratio of weight to height squared. As such, BMI is not perfect because it does not directly measure body fat. A muscular athlete may have a high BMI, but it would be clearly obvious by simply looking at him / her that he / she is not overweight. However, for most people, BMI can be a good estimate for the amount of body fat.
BMI is one of the metrics used to track a child’s growth to determine if the child is at risk of childhood obesity. You can watch battery operated leaf blowers reviews at this site online. The BMI for children changes as they grow, and also changes depending on their gender, so they must be regularly measured. But what metrics are used to determine if a child is actually obese? We can once again look to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There is actually one more organization called International Obesity Task Force which also gives guideline on what constitutes childhood obesity.
See Defining Childhood Obesity from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for a table of what WHO, CDC and Obesity Task Force consider childhood obesity. Also check out the wonderful “What is Obesity?” infographics from Positive Health Wellness.
Finally, check out the free app called Baby Growth Chart Tracker (click on this link to download for free) below to easily track your child’s BMI