BMI Calculator

Body Mass Index or BMI is an estimate of a person's leanness or body fat based on their body weight and height, and is designed to assess tissue mass. It is commonly used as a general measure of whether a person's body weight is appropriate for their height.

Specifically, the result derived from the BMI calculation is used to determine whether a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese, depending on which category the value falls into.

These BMI values vary depending on geography and age, and are often further classified as extremely underweight or very severely obese.

Although BMI is not a perfect estimate of healthy body weight, it may be a helpful tool in determining if further testing or treatment is necessary because being overweight or underweight can have serious health consequences.

The Body Mass Index calculator or BMI calculator is a useful tool that determines your current weight—whether you are overweight, underweight, or just adequate. That said, a persons weight cannot be the sole indicator of their health. A person with a 5.10 ft. height can easily weigh more than one with a 5.5 ft. height.

A BMI calculator takes into account both - the height and weight, to give a better idea. BMI also takes into account geological as well as age factors while calculating. When analyzing a customers application for life insurance and health insurance, BMI is taken into account to understand their health condition to propose an appropriate premium amount.

To calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index), you need to follow only two steps, as given below:

Step 1: Measure your height (in centimeters or feet and inches) and multiple the result by itself.

Step 2: Measure your weight and divide it with the result obtained in STEP 1. This will be your final BMI Value.

The following is the BMI Formula:

BMI = mass or weight (kg)/height2 (m)

It is fairly simple to use the BMI calculator. The following are the few steps required to use BMI calculator:

Step 1: Enter your age, gender, as well as weight and height, using standard or metric measures.

Step 2: Then select "Compute/Calculate BMI" and your BMI will appear below.

Upon entering the above-mentioned data, the calculator will give the following values:

There are the five basic ranges within which the BMI calculator results typically range as per the BMI tables scale mentioned above. These are:

Now, lets understand how the BMI changes for men, women and children in the following section

Lets take a look at the tabular bifurcation of BMI of men and understand how they are placed in the weight category basis their BMI:

Body fat of children changes rapidly as they grow. Since their growth is an ongoing curve, its only wise to adjust the BMI range for children and teens in comparison to the BMI for adults. While in the US, the BMI for children is taken for individuals aged between 2 and 20 years, in India, we do this measurement for individuals falling in the 5-18 years of age range.

The BMI for children in US is considered normal when falling between the 5^th and 85^th percentile. As per the Indian standards, to define overweight and obesity in children from 5-18 years of age, adult equivalent of 23 and 27 cut-off lines, as presented in the BMI charts (given below), are recommended to be used.

Also, unlike the BMI for adults where theres no demarcation for men and women BMI, the BMI percentiles for children and teenagers are different for boys and girls.

The following charts are used in India for BMI percentile reference in children, with separate charts for girls and boys, viz.:

BMI helps to indicate the persons body fat. Basis a persons position on BMI, it can be ascertained if it presents a risk to their health.

To answer the question of why should we use a BMI calculator, it is to be understood that a low or high BMI can impact you in various spheres of life, viz. health, lifestyle and finances.

BMI calculator plays a vital role to check whether a person is healthy or not. It is an easy to use tool for assessing the health of an individual and also works as the ‘Obesity Indicator. Following reasons makes BMI calculator a useful tool for public:

Being overweight brings a host of medical problems which can seriously hamper your quality of life as well as your finances due to the added expenses it brings. Also, the life insurance premium as well as the health insurance premium of an overweight or obese person can go much higher than that of someone with a weight well within a healthy range.

Apart from frequent doctor visits and added expenses, lets understand the health risks related to being overweight or obese:

Just as being overweight is a problem, underweight people also encounter a host of medical issues such as:

The following are some common advices that should be taken into consideration, if the goal is achieving good health:

While BMI is a standard indicator of ones health status, especially in the field of health insurance and life insurance in India, it isnt a fool-proof system. While many BMI calculators do ask for ones gender and age along with their height and weight, but due to a lack of differential BMI ranges, the BMI result dont reveal the exact picture.

Lets understand the limitations of BMI for adults, children and teenagers as explained below:

Ponderal Index is another way of measuring ones health, like BMI. However, where BMI calculation only takes into account ones height and weight, Ponderal Index gives much accurate results as it undertakes a persons body mass distribution by including the cubic power of their height. The formula for calculating a persons Ponderal Index is weight/height^3.

Also, Ponderal Index for adults is used with different units, i.e. kilograms for weight and meters for height. Similarly, for children it comes with grams and centimeters, for weight and height respectively.