You may know you are overweight and could stand to lose some excess fat if your jeans no longer want to button or you start to notice the rolls hanging out from under your shirt, but it is often humbling to check your body mass index and see exactly where you stand with your weight. Are you just a little overweight, or do you now classify as obese?

Even if you think you are healthy, you may be quite surprised to find that you slip into the overweight category! Checking your BMI often turns into a wake up call.

Your BMI is simply a way of determining whether you are currently at a healthy weight for your height, or if you are overweight. It classifies each person as either underweight, healthy, overweight, or obese. This is very similar to the weight/height charts that used to be used to determine an ideal weight range.

Accuracy of BMI

Anyone who wants to lose weight should check their BMI, but it is important to understand that it does not account for your body fat percentage or percentage of lean muscle mass. Muscle weighs more than fat so someone who is very muscular may have a higher weight that puts them at overweight, even when they are in fact at a healthy weight for their frame and age.

For the most part, if you measure into the obese category you can assume that you could stand to lose some weight even if you do have a more muscular frame.

The best case scenario is to check your BMI frequently but also track your body fat percentage. Rather than just aiming to lose pounds on the scale and get into the healthy weight range, you should try to lower your body fat to a healthy percentage as well.

Calculating BMI

The most accurate and fastest way to determine your BMI is to locate a calculator online. These calculators allow you to simply plug in your height and current weight to receive an instant readout of your BMI. Remember, those are the only numbers you need because your BMI does not take any other factors into account.

If you want to calculate your body mass index on your own, you would need to divide your current weight by your height in inches. That figure is then multiplied by your height in inches once again.

If you want to measure your body fat percentage as well, consider finding a local health club or university that can do a body dunk to check your fat percentage. If that is unavailable, there are many scales on the market which will tell you fat percentage as well as weight.

If you need to lose a considerable amount of weight, following your BMI is a great tool that adds motivation to continue making healthy decisions in your daily life. Make it one of your goals to reach a weight that puts you in the "healthy" category. Figure out what a healthy body fat percentage would be for your height and body type and strive to hit that goal as well.

Losing weight isn't just about the number on the scale! You should strive to be healthy, energetic, and active in your daily life. By tracking your BMI you will know when you are getting close to the ideal weight for your height.