BMI Calculator

Features

• Metric and imperial input
• WHO category classification
• Healthy weight range calculated for your height
• Full category table with your position marked
• Nothing is stored or transmitted

How to use it

1. Choose metric or imperial units.
2. Enter your height and weight.
3. Read your BMI and category.
4. The healthy range shows target weights for your height.

What BMI does and does not tell you

BMI is weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. It was devised in the 1830s by Adolphe Quetelet as a way of describing populations, not individuals, and that origin explains most of its limitations. It is a cheap, reproducible screening measure that correlates reasonably with body fat across large groups.

For any specific person it can be quite wrong, because it cannot distinguish muscle from fat or account for where fat is distributed. Muscular athletes routinely score in the overweight or obese range while carrying very little body fat. Older adults may lose muscle while gaining fat and keep the same BMI throughout. The thresholds were derived largely from European populations, and health risks rise at lower BMI values for people of South Asian, Chinese and other ancestries, several health bodies use a lower overweight threshold of 23 for these groups.

BMI also tells you nothing about visceral fat, which is the type most strongly linked to metabolic risk. Waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio are better single predictors of cardiovascular risk than BMI. Treat the number here as one rough data point among several, and speak to a doctor rather than drawing conclusions from it, this tool is informational and is not medical advice.