Calculating BMI in Nigerian Women

No, this is not a gender biased article (as you can see from the above picture:)), just talking from a recent experience I had.

Was called by one of the biggest churches in the city to volunteer for a women’s health programme, which involved checking the participant’s BMI (Body Mass Index) and by extension their body fat and visceral fat.

A quick understanding of the above terms is crucial:

Body Mass Index (BMI) seeks to measure whether you are the ideal weight considering your height. It also relates to age. So a high body mass index means you are either overweight, obese or morbidly obese; on the other spectrum is being underweight. BMI can be easily measured by dividing the person’s weight in kg by the square of her height in meters.

Body fat as the name implies, measures your body fat.

Visceral fat measures the fat around your organs.

So the risks of the above are obvious: hypertension, diabetes, artherosclerosis, cancer, depression etc.

My findings: About 60 percent of the women I reviewed at the conference were either overweight or had a high body or visceral fat, some obese,one morbidly obese and only one underweight (this was just at my stand, and I’m sure the picture cut across other stands).

The women were mostly in the younger age group (20-45).

Do you agree with my generalisation?

If true, what could be the cause?

Image: Google search