What’s Your BMI?

Knowing what your Body Mass Index is, or your BMI, supports you in achieving your health goals.  While many people are looking to lose weight, what they may not realize is that simply hitting your ideal number on the scale and being healthy are two very different things.  For one, muscle weighs more than fat, and this is why when people start going to the gym they are boggled as to why they sometimes put on weight instead of losing weight.  The thing is while they probably DID lose body fat, they probably gained more muscle which may look deceiving on that bathroom scale.

Your BMI is the measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women.  For adults, you typically want to see a BMI index of 18.5% to 24.9%:  this means you fall within the healthy range.  Anything lower than this percentage means you are underweight and over 24.9% means you are overweight.  If your BMI is at 30% or higher, you may be obese depending on how much muscle you have and other factors.  The best way to find out your BMI is to get it measured by professionals.  While there are online BMI calculators which claim to measure a person’s BMI in a matter of seconds, they don’t take into account your personal muscle mass and can be inaccurate.  For example, someone like The Rock, Dwayne Johnson who has a lot of muscle mass may measure his body fat through an online BMI calculator, and it will most likely reveal that he is obese when in fact he is just really buff!

That being said, there are professional places you can get your BMI percentage read in Kuala Lumpur.

Measure Your BMI in Kuala Lumpur

You can go to any number of gyms within Kuala Lumpur, or Malaysia for that matter, and most of them will correctly measure your body mass index.  One way is to use a skin fold caliper:  this test requires you to pinch your body fat off your body and measure it with a device (I have done this and it can be painful depending on who is doing the measuring).

Another way would be to use hydrostatic weighing:  this is where your whole body is submerged in a specialized tank of water.  While this is considered the gold standard in measuring body fat, it can be quite expensive and is found at relatively few places in Kuala Lumpur.

The way I enjoy is by use of the Bioelectric Impedance Analysis which Sweatspa has within their facilities.  It measures your body fat in a matter of minutes by use of an electric current that flows through your body.  Of course, you don’t really feel the current.  Because muscle conducts electricity better than fat, the electric current can measure your BMI and even your metabolism.  The cool thing is that there are a few Sweatspa locations in Kuala Lumpur, like in Atria Shopping Centre and Bangsar Shopping Centre, and also in Great Eastern Mall, Ampang!

You can walk into any one of their outlets and they will give you a free scan. They will even print out your results for your own personal record!

Coming back to the Far-Infrared Saunas, it is an amazing piece of equipment that supports people in detoxing through the largest organ in their body:  their skin!  When we rid our bodies of harmful toxins that we have either taken in via consumption, or just by living an unhealthy lifestyle in general, our body begins to feel lighter, our digestive system becomes more efficient and we help our bodies do what they are made to do:  detox themselves!

Additionally, the Far-Infrared Sauna has many additional benefits such as promoting clearer skin, boosting metabolism, ridding your muscles of lactic acid after a workout (which is one of the causes of soreness after a weight lifting session) to name a few.  Getting a free BMI and metabolism scan is as easy as picking up your phone and scheduling a time to visit one of their outlets!  Their contact information can be found here.

In summary, you can check out where the nearest SweatSpa location is in relation to you by clicking here.

Wishing you a sweaty good time!

Jana Moreno