Maintaining a healthy weight is perhaps the single most important step you can take toward optimal health and long life. Knowing your BMI can help you determine if weight loss would be recommended for you. Remember a BMI over 25 indicates you are over weight and a BMI of 30 indicates obesity, which is a serious health risk. You should not use the standard BMI chart to evaluate a child’s or teenager’s weight. Talk to your child’s healthcare provider about the optimum weight range for their age and height.
- Body mass index, or BMI, uses a simple equation to measure the relationship of your height to your weight, telling you if you have a healthy level of body fat.
- Because of this, a person can have a high BMI but still have a very low fat mass and vice versa.
- Colours indicate BMI categories defined by the World Health Organization; underweight, normal weight, overweight, moderately obese, severely obese and very severely obese.
- Calculate BMI before considering more expensive and invasive options.
- Answers represent the opinions of our medical experts.
For example, BMI does not distinguish between the extent of muscle mass, bone mass and fat accumulation. As the muscle is denser than fat, it follows that athletes and athletes, in general, are found to have a higher BMI, even if their body fat percentage falls into a healthy category. However, for most people, BMI is a good indication of body fat. However, athletes may have a high BMI because of increased muscularity rather than increased body fatness. In general, a person who has a high BMI is likely to have body fatness and would be considered to be overweight or obese, but this may not apply to athletes.
Physical characteristics
This measure does not take into account your age, race, sex, or fitness level. More sophisticated methods of measuring body fat and composition also exist. However, most are not available in standard medical offices. Instead, they’re used in specialist or research settings.
- More sophisticated methods of measuring body fat and composition also exist.
- The higher the BMI, the greater the risk of developing health problems.
- Let’s calculate, however, using pounds and inches.
- Too much body fat raises your risk of chronic disease, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
- Additionally, carrying extra weight can be tough on the skeletal system and joints, and it can result in changes in motor function and postural control.
- Discuss your BMI category with your healthcare provider as BMI may relate to your overall health and well-being.
Calculate your BMI and find the BMI weight category for your height. You can also calculate the normal weight range for your height. Your healthcare provider might determine possible reasons for obesity and recommend support or treatment. Having obesity can increase risk for chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol. That being said, BMI is fairly indicative of body fat for 90-95% of the population, and can effectively be used along with other measures to help determine an individual’s healthy body weight. A waist circumference greater than 40 inches around, if you’re male, or, if you’re female, 35 inches around, indicates an abundance of harmful deep-abdominal fat and a higher risk of chronic disease.
Blood Tests to Measure Health
The BMI cut-offs are presented with an emphasis on health risk rather than weight. A common use of the BMI is to assess how far an individual’s body weight departs from what is normal for a person’s height. The weight excess or deficiency may, in part, be accounted for by body fat although other factors such as muscularity also affect BMI significantly IT Security Specialist Career Path Training, Jobs, Skills & Pay . Since the only measures used to calculate BMI are weight and height, it can overestimate body fat in athletes or individuals with lots of muscle mass. Keep in mind that BMI is a ratio between height and total body weight – it does not differentiate between weight from muscle and weight from fat, nor does it consider an individual’s body frame type.
- These ranges of BMI vary based on factors such as region and age, and are sometimes further divided into subcategories such as severely underweight or very severely obese.
- Furthermore, many of these methods can be difficult to standardize across observers or machines, complicating comparisons across studies and time periods.
- If you have any concerns or questions about your health, you should always check with your GP or healthcare professional.
- It is not the most accurate measure of how much body fat you have, but it is the easiest and least expensive way to measure it.
When calculating your BMI, you’ll need your weight in kilograms and your height in meters. BMI, or body mass index, is a measurement generally used to gauge the healthiness of a person’s weight. Invented by a physician called Quetelet in the early 1900s, BMI is widely used as a rough indicator of body mass health. Keep in mind, however, that BMI is not an exact science. As well as measuring your BMI, healthcare professionals may take other factors into account when assessing if you’re a healthy weight. BMI provides an estimate of your body fat, which can influence your risk of developing diseases.
How to Calculate Your Body Mass Index (BMI)
There are also online calculators available if you are having trouble calculating your BMI manually. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 means that you are overweight.

Because of this, the standards have varied over the past few decades. Dietary Guidelines have defined overweight at a variety of levels ranging from a BMI of 24.9 Cyber Security Specialist job description template Workable to 27.1. In 1985 the National Institutes of Health consensus conference recommended that overweight BMI be set at a BMI of 27.8 for men and 27.3 for women.
Why is BMI used to measure overweight and obesity?
In addition, multiple factors need to be considered when determining what a healthy weight is for you. BMI can provide one small piece of information, but it should not be the only resource used when deciding how much you should weigh to stay well. It’s possible that you could have a normal BMI but still have heightened health risks. Verywell Health articles are reviewed by board-certified physicians and healthcare professionals. These medical reviewers confirm the content is thorough and accurate, reflecting the latest evidence-based research. Content is reviewed before publication and upon substantial updates.

For example, if you are 1.75 meters tall, then you would multiply 1.75 by 1.75 and get a result of approximately 3.06. Measure your waist circumference , as this measurement alongside a BMI reading can give them a better picture of your health. Consider BMI for what it is—an estimate, not a measurement, and just one piece of information that can help paint the picture of your overall health. Your healthcare provider can help you better understand how your BMI fits in. Even though it is a biased measure, BMI is still widely used in the medical community because it’s an inexpensive and quick way to analyze a person’s potential health status and outcomes. Eating a healthy diet is the key to heart disease prevention. In this example the goal is to parse feet and inches out in the text strings shown in column B, and create a single numeric value for total inches.
Limitations of BMI
Those born female tend to have more body fat in comparison to men. Therefore, a woman may register in a “safe” category of BMI but still have levels of body fat that can represent a health risk. In US units, where weight is in pounds and height is in inches, divide weight by inches squared. The CDC and WHO use the BMI range charts below to evaluate the weight of adults aged 20 and over given his or her height.
How do I calculate BMI in Excel?
- Open Microsoft Excel, then press Alt+F11on keyboard, so VBE (Visual Basic Editor) window is displayed.
- Open a module by selecting Module on Insert menu and write this script: Function BMI(weight, height) BMI = weight / (height / 100) ^ 2 End Function.
- Close the VBE window and back to Excel.