Why is it important to know my BMI?

Knowing your Body Mass Index (BMI) is important because it gives you a good indication as to whether you are overweight, underweight or within the healthy range. Your weight obviously influences your general health. When you use a BMI calculator and your BMI is too high you are classified as clinically overweight or obese. This means you are at increased risk of suffering from a variety of chronic health problems. These include conditions like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease and osteoarthritis. If your BMI test reveals that you do have a high BMI, your risk of suffering from endometrial, breast, prostate and colon cancer is also significantly increased. You may also experience tiredness and shortness of breath due to being overweight.

It’s important to remember that professional athletes and people who have a high amount of muscle mass may fall into the overweight category, despite being healthy. In the young and the elderly, bone densities differ and therefore the proportion of bone to total weight influences BMI in a way that makes these people appear underweight. To calculate BMI these factors must be considered.

What is BMI?

The Body Mass Index test or BMI test compares a person’s weight and height to give an indication as to whether they have a healthy body weight. BMI is a good way to assess your weight as people’s body frames vary. Using the BMI it is possible to recommend a healthy weight range for someone, rather than a specific weight for a particular height. This allows for the natural diversity among body shapes and sizes.

The BMI test is a suitable measurement for most people, apart from young children who are under the age of 2. This index is used by the National Institutes of Health and The World Health Organization as a way to define obesity.

How does the BMI calculator work?

The BMI calculator takes your height in metres and multiplies the figure by itself. To calculate BMI, it takes your weight in kilograms, and divides it by the height squared.

For example, if you are 5 foot, 3 inches tall, you are 1.6 metres. If you are this height and weigh 10 stone 3 pounds, you are 65 kilograms, and so the calculation would be as follows:

1.6 x 1.6= 2.56. So, 65 (your weight in KG) divided by 2.56 = 25.39