Body mass index, or BMI, is a method to help you determine if you are at a healthy weight for your height. BMI is a number based upon your weight and height. In general, the higher the number, the more body fat an individual has. If your weight might be putting you at risk for health issues such as heart diabetes, disease, and cancer, BMI is often utilized as a screening tool to choose.
BMI is utilized to broadly define various weight groups in grownups 20 years old or older. The very same groups apply to both males and females.
- Underweight: BMI is less than 18.5
- Regular weight: BMI is 18.5 to 24.9
- Overweight: BMI is 25 to 29.9
- Overweight: BMI is 30 or more
What is my BMI?
There are several ways to find your BMI.
Charts and online calculators
Tables and charts, such as the one below, are one easy method to find out your BMI. There are also several online BMI calculators, such as this one on our site.
To use the table listed below, find your height on the left side of the chart, then cross to the weight that is closest to yours. At the top of the chart you can see your BMI, and at the bottom of the chart you can see which category you suit-- healthy weight, overweight, or overweight:.
Some examples
This table shows us that a female who is 5 ft. 4 in. If she weighs in between 145 and 169 pounds, high is considered overweight (BMI is 25 to 29). She is thought about obese (BMI is 30 or more) if she weighs 174 pounds or more.
A male who is 5 ft. 10 in. tall is thought about overweight (BMI is 25 to 29) if he weighs between 174 and 202 pounds, and is overweight (BMI is 30 or more) if he weighs 209 pounds or more.
Calculating my BMI
You can also calculate your own BMI. The actual formula to figure out BMI utilizes metric system measurements: weight in kgs (kg) divided by height in meters, squared (m2).
When utilizing inches and pounds, the formula needs to be changed slightly. Multiply your weight in pounds by 703. Divide that by your height in inches, squared:.
BMI = (your weight in pounds x 703) ÷ (your height in inches x your height in inches).
For instance, if you weigh 120 pounds and are 5 ft. 3 in. (63 in.) high:.
BMI = (120 x 703) ÷ (63 x 63) or 84,360 ÷ 3969 = 21.3.
This is well within the healthy weight variety.
Are there any issues using the BMI?
Nurses and medical professionals often use BMI to assist find out if an individual may have a weight problem. BMI provides an excellent price quote of overall body fat for most people, but it doesn't work well for everybody. For instance, bodybuilders or other very muscular people can have a high BMI because of their muscle mass, despite the fact that they're not always overweight. The BMI can also ignore body fat in people who have lost muscle mass, such as some older people.
For a lot of grownups, the BMI is a good way to get a concept of healthy weight ranges. But it's not always the final word in deciding if an individual is overweight or overweight. When evaluating how much someone needs to weigh, there are other things to think about. An individual with a high BMI need to be assessed by a healthcare service provider, who might utilize other elements such as skinfold thickness (a measure of body fat), waist size, evaluations of diet and family illness, and other elements to learn if a person's weight might position a health danger.
BMI in children and teens
BMI can be calculated the same way for children and teens as it is for grownups, but the numbers don't have the same meaning. This is due to the fact that the typical quantity of body fat changes with age in teens and kids, and is different in between kids and women. So for kids, BMI levels that define being regular weight or overweight are based upon the child's age and gender.
To account for this, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has actually developed age- and gender-specific development charts. These charts are utilized to equate a BMI number into a percentile based on a child's sex and age. The percentiles are then used to figure out the different weight groups:.
- Underweight: less than the 5th percentile
- Normal weight: 5th percentile to less than the 85th percentile
- Overweight: 85th percentile to less than the 95th percentile
- Obese: 95th percentile or higher
Even in a young adult, being overweight or overweight can cause health issue. And it might directly increase the danger for certain health issue later on in life, consisting of some sort of cancer. It likewise increases the opportunities of being obese or overweight as an adult, along with the risk of illness that can feature this.