Health metrics, decoded

A metric page here does three things in order. It gives the formula so you can see what the number actually measures, states the ranges that are generally considered healthy with the source they come from, and then adds the military or first-responder angle, which is usually the part that matters most and the part most other references omit. A number can sit comfortably inside a general health range and still miss a service-specific threshold, and it can be just outside a general range while clearing the standard your command applies. Reading them separately is the point.

Two cautions apply across every metric on this site. The first is that most of these are estimates built from population equations, so a value carries a margin of error rather than a precise reading — the metric page states the size of that margin where it is known. The second is that a metric is a description, not a diagnosis. Where a figure is out of range and you want to act on it, the appropriate next step is a conversation with a clinician or a dietitian rather than a change made on the basis of one calculator.