Am I really overweight?

Q: I am a 40-year-old male weighing 78 kg and 166 cm tall. My BMI is 28.5, which means I am overweight. However, I can walk 5 km rapidly, run 1 km, do push-ups (30 at a stretch), can do pull- ups (10 at a stretch), work out on parallel bars (10 at a stretch), etc. A lot of people with BMI less than 25 are not capable of doing all this; then how is it that I am classified overweight?

A:The one piece of advice I can give you is this: as long as you are living a healthy life and are going through a sustainable, all-round fitness routine, you should not really be too affected by numbers. Yes, you should use them as benchmarks, but do not become their slaves. I can understand that you have calculated your ideal weight and found that you have a higher than usual BMI. A test like a Body Composition Test will give you a better idea of the percentage of lean mass and fat. But think of it this way that this ideal weight calculation is not the ONLY benchmark to go by. There are a number of other variables that give a good indication of your health like cardiac output or waist to hip ratio. You do also have to take your age into account.So, go ahead and keep the numbers as a goal post you need to reach. But also congratulate yourself on the fact that you are fitter than most ideal weight people, and just keep at it!