BMI Calculator

The BMI (body mass index) is a measurement of your healthy weightfor your height. Utilize the BMI calculator to measure for the parents in your home.

For children, visit Weight Concern's Child page and the young adult's weight index (BMI) calculator. Imperial

This calculator should be utilized to measure the weight of adults (pregnant or lactating women should not base their decisions on the BMI readings), and no action should be taken based on its values other than consulting an appropriately qualified individual such as a physician.

The calculator will give you some idea of how your weight is compared to the norm for values. Body Mass Index (or BMI) is calculated by taking your mass (in kilograms) subtracted by the size of the square (in meters) or BMI = Kg/M2.

Is Body Mass Index reliable?

Your BMI is also known as Body Mass Index, is an indicator of your weight in relation to your height. It is crucial to make accurate assessments of obesity. crucial, since being overweight or obese significantly increases your risk of a variety of medical conditions like type 2 heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. With the rate of weight gain or obesity rise, the spotlight has fallen upon BMI and its limitations as a measure of optimal weight for individual people and not for whole groups of people for whom "averages" apply.

"Some people naturally have a larger frame than others. But this causes quite a small variation in weight and is accounted for in the range of healthy BMI. There is really no such thing as someone who is big-boned. " Dr. Jan Sambrook, How to lose weight in a healthy way

For the majority of adult people, BMI is a great estimate of your weight-related health risk. If your BMI is greater than 35, you are definitely putting your health at risk regardless of the risk factors below. However, there are some circumstances in which BMI could be over or underestimating the risk in the 25-35 BMI range. The most common are:

Children

Your GP or health visitor can give you advice on the position of your child on the 'centile charts' that measure the healthy weights of children.

Pregnant women

Usual BMI estimates do not apply if you're pregnant.

If you are very muscular

BMI assumes that you have an acceptable amount of body fat such as 'intra-abdominal' fat - fat deep inside your stomach cavity, rather than underneath your skin. Intra-abdominal fat is much more closely linked with risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease than fat beneath the skin.

If you are very muscular then your body fat could be less than that predicted by your BMI. This only applies to people who do intense exercise much more than average.

If you are of Asian Origin, you will be able to identify yourself.

People of Asian origin are more likely to develop intra-abdominal fat (fat in the stomach cavity, not under your skin) at lower BMI levels than those who are of Caucasian origin. People with this pattern for weight increase are referred to as 'apples' and not "pears" as per their body outline. This implies that their health risks are increased at lower BMI since abdominal fat is directly associated with the development of heart diseases and kind 2 diabetes.

The World Health Organisation has looked at the evidence, and because of the varying characteristics between Asian populations It hasn't changed the cut-offs. However, it recommends to use the cut-off points for public health there are certain Asian populations should be classified as overweight when their BMI is between 22 and 25 and obese if they have the BMI range of 26 to 31.

People who are older (over 65, and possibly even over 60)

Because muscle mass tends to drop and body fat tends to increase with age however, BMI may not be an accurate reflection of body fat levels if you're older than 60.

Alternative estimates of weight-related health dangers

If you think that your BMI might not accurately tell you if you are overweight or obese, measuring your abdominal circumference, waisthip or waist ratio can provide an accurate estimate.

Waist circumference

Measure your waist circumference about halfway between the bottom of your ribcage and the top of your hip bones using a tape measure that is in line with the floor. It is essential to breathe out when you measure. Male

• Higher risk of developing health issues - >=94cm
• Health risk for high-risk patients - > 102cm

Female

• Risk of increased health - >80cm
• High risk of health-related illness - >=88cm

The ratio of waist to hip

For a quick check of your waist to hip ratio, measure how wide your waist is (as above) as well as your hip measurement at the broadest point the hips. Divide your abdominal circumference by your hip measurement to get the ratio.

• In women, a waist to hip ratio that is greater then 0.85 is associated with a greater than the average risk.
• For males in men, a hip-to-waist ratio greater than 1.00 is associated with a higher than average risk.

Waist to height ratio

A recent study comparing BMI as well as waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and the ratio of waist to height found that the best method of determining your overall body fat percentage was to look at the waist-height ratio.

Find your waist circumference using the method above, and then divide it by the height of your body - fairly obviously both measurements should soit be measured in imperial (inches) or in metric (cm).

Obesity in the whole body is defined by a waist-to-height ratio of:

• 0.53 and more males
• 0.54 or greater for women

Abdominal obesity was defined by a waist-to-height proportion of 0.59 or greater.

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