The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a calculation that compares a person's weight to their height to determine total body fat. The number does correlate with the amount, though it is not a direct measurement. That is, the higher a person's BMI, the higher their total body fat.
Your BMI score will determine whether you are underweight, normal, overweight, or obese, with anything between 18.5 and 24.9 being considered "Normal." BMI is used by doctors to determine a person's risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, and certain cancers.
So, how do you figure out your BMI? It's a simple formula: BMI = weight (kg) / height (m2), or (weight (lbs) / height (in2) x 703 in Imperial terms.
18.5 BMI SCORE CATEGORY UNDERWEIGHT
18.5-25
Obese > 30 Obese Normal 25-30 Overweight
There are also online calculators that can quickly and accurately calculate your BMI.
That raises the next question: Is BMI a reliable metric? Keep in mind that it only considers height and weight and ignores other factors that may influence a person's health, such as age, sex, genetics, body fat, muscle mass, or bone density, as well as lifestyle habits such as the amount and quality of sleep a person gets and how active they are.
Consider the BMI of a 180cm-tall bodybuilder who works out every other day versus a 175cm-tall office worker who leads a relatively sedentary lifestyle. Both of them are 90 kilograms. They fall into the Overweight category on the BMI scale. The bodybuilder, on the other hand, has significantly more lean muscle mass and significantly less body fat than the sedentary office worker. And that's just the beginning; when we look at more health indicators, the two men's profiles couldn't be more dissimilar. If we rely solely on BMI, the bodybuilder will be left wondering what he's doing wrong, while the sedentary person will be led to believe that he's not doing so bad and simply needs to lose some weight. Neither scenario is advantageous.
However, it should be noted that being overweight or obese increases one's risk of a variety of illnesses, including COVID-19. Of course, knowing where you stand in terms of health is beneficial, but BMI can only serve as a starting point for understanding the larger and far more complex picture that is your current state of health. Try Boditrax, a cutting-edge body composition tool that's simple to use and intuitive, for a more accurate assessment. It takes just 30 seconds to read 15 personal body composition measurements and comes with a mobile app to track your progress.
