Below you’ll find a quick and easy way to check your BMI. Just enter your height and weight and click calculate. You can switch between metric and imperial units, depending on your preference, but you can’t combine them.
What is BMI?
The term BMI stands for Body Mass Index, and is simply a calculation of your weight in proportion to your height. The calculations are slightly different depending on whether you use metric or imperial:
- Metric – Weight (kilograms) divided by Height (metres) squared
- Imperial – Weight (lbs x 703) divided by Height (inches)
You BMI is used as a quick assessment as to whether you’re underweight, overweight or at a healthy weight.
- less than 16 – Severe thinness
- 16 to 17 – Moderate thinness
- 17 to 18.5 – Mild Thinness
- 18.5 to 25 – Normal
- 25 to 30 – Overweight
- 30 to 35 – Obese
- 34 to 40 – Severely Obese
- more than 40 – Morbidly Obese
You can see an example of this in action in the chart below, which shows the BMI calculations for a man of average height (currently 171cm):
The Problem With BMI
According to BMI calculations, these two men are the same.
One of the biggest complaints about the BMI measurement comes from bodybuilders. Because it simply looks at your height and weight, it doesn’t take into account muscle mass. This means that a 6ft / 300lb bodybuilder with 5% body fat would have a BMI of 40.7 and be classed as morbidly obese.
For this reason, a BMI calculatir should only be used as a rough guide rather than an absolute indicator of body health. Medical professionals will use it in conjunction with other diagnostic tools and calculations.
Why Use a BMI Calculatir?
If it can be such a misleading calculation, you may be wondering why use it at all. The reality is that unless you sit on the far ends of the scale, your BMI with be “roughly” representative of how you compare to a normal weight range. It is also a very quick and universal way of assessing and monitoring part of a persons health, which makes it incredibly useful, quick and cheap.
For those of you who are of the muscle bound variety, chances are you doctor will be able to spot your bulging biceps and thundering thighs, and will know not to pay too much attention to your BMI (although they may still be required to record it as part of standard procedure).