If it's not possible for you to get a body-fat monitor or have a measurement professionally taken, knowing your body mass index (BMI) is the next best thing. Your BMI is a measure of the ratio of your height to your weight.

My patient Miranda used to think all was well whenever she managed to keep the numbers on the scale from inching above 140. She fretted, though, about how difficult it was for her to maintain her weight in midlife compared to when she was younger. As we get older, our basic metabolic rate (BMR)—the rate at which we burn calories—slows down. This leads to decreased lean muscle mass and increased fat deposits, which is what was happening to Miranda.

Miranda made the decision to follow my modified Mediterranean eating plan, start exercising, use my Metabolism Booster supplement and Meal Replacement Shake, and begin tracking her BMI rather than her weight. Interestingly, she was only slightly above her "target" weight of 140 when she started, and thought she had very little work to do to reach her goal. She was surprised to learn that her baseline BMI was nearly 26, almost a point above the healthy BMI range of 19 to 25.

But once Miranda started paying more attention to what she ate and how she exercised, her weight dropped slowly and steadily. More importantly, her BMI gradually began to come down, all the way to 23 in a little more than four months as she shed fat and gained lean muscle mass. She felt different, too—trimmer, more toned and fit, and definitely more energetic.

Finding Your Baseline BMI

Follow these steps to calculate your BMI:

1. Divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared.
2. Multiply that number by 704.5 to get your BMI.
3. For instance, the BMI of a 154-pound woman who is 5 feet 5 inches tall is computed this way: 154 pounds/(65 inches x 65 inches = 4225 inches) = .0364.
   .0364 X 704.5 = 25.6.
4. Compare your number to standard BMI ranges, which are as follows:
   • Normal 19–24.9
   • Overweight 25–29.9
   • Obese 30–39.9
   • Extreme Obesity 40 or greater
5. Measure your body fat again every six weeks or so, or recalculate your BMI then. Continue to monitor your progress, and note the difference in how you look and feel!

Please keep me posted, too, on how you're doing. Let me know how my program is working for you, and what has helped you most along the way.