Go ahead, try it: pop your height and weight into one of the many online calculators, like the one offered by the Mayo Clinic. The calculator will present you with a number ranging from the high teens to the thirties. The calculator works for men, women, adults and children.
Definition: Body Mass Index
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, body mass index, or BMI, is a number that estimates the amount of body fat you have based on your height and weight. Your BMI represents the likelihood that you are underweight, average, overweight or obese. Doctors use it as a screening method to identify people who have an unhealthy weight and may be at risk for weight-related conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.
Calculation
You don’t need a website widget to calculate your BMI. If you have a calculator, you can do it yourself. As described by the CDC, the formula takes your weight in pounds and divides it by your height in inches squared. Multiply the result by 703 to get your BMI.
Results
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a BMI of less than 18.5 means you’re underweight. Normal BMIs fall between 18.5 and 24.9. You’re likely to be overweight if your BMI is between 25 and 29.9. A BMI of 30 or greater indicates obesity. Remember, your BMI is just an estimate of body fat--it doesn't indicate how much fat you actually have or how healthy you are.
Considerations
Just because you have a high BMI doesn’t necessarily mean you’re obese or even overweight. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute cautions that muscular people like athletes may score a high BMI that doesn’t reflect their actual level of body fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, a muscular person’s weight will always be more than that of a non-muscular person with the same height. The muscular person will have a higher BMI, although he’s in better physical shape than the person with a lower BMI.
Follow-Up Tests
If you have a high BMI, your doctor may want to learn more about your family medical history, eating habits and exercise habits. The CDC adds that he may also want to measure the thickness of your folds of skin with calipers--this is a direct body fat measurement, whereas your BMI is simply an estimate. There are other ways to measure your body fat, but the CDC warns against them because they are expensive and require extensive training to use; these methods include dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and bio-electrical impedance. Any follow-up tests will simply be the first step in determining whether your weight is healthy and manageable based on your lifestyle and other disease risk factors.
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