What Is Body Mass Index

Body mass index (BMI) is a relative measure of your weight based on your height. It is a great way to get a rough idea of the weight range you should fall in based on your height. A healthy BMI is within the range 20 – 25. BMI is calculated by the following calculation: weight (kg)/ height (m2). A BMI greater than 25 is considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is obese.

BMI should not be the only consideration when deciding your ideal weight. People with higher muscle mass tend to have a higher BMI, as well has people with heavier frames. For this reason, your BMI should only be used as a guide.

An alternative to BMI is to look at weight charts based on frame. This adds another element to the calculation and makes the result more realistic.

Another way to assess you weight instead of BMI is to look at your body fat %. Whilst you can measure your BMI at home, to get a body fat % reading you will need to go to a gym. Males should aim to have less than 20% body fat and females less than 25%.

Though your BMI can tell you if you are overweight or not, it will not give you any health indication. People with low BMI’s can still be unhealthy without performing regular exercise and eating properly. So the use for BMI should be to get an overall feel if you are over/underweight for your height.

To break BMI down in more detail, the results are as follows:

BMI result indicates
< 19 Underweight - consider putting on some weight
20 - 25 Healthy weight range
25 - 30 Overweight – would be good to lose some weight to avoid health risks
> 30 Obese – would be good to a see doctor to help lose weight and avoid likely health risks

About the Author

At Australian Lifestyle & Fitness we understand how difficult it is to achieve a healthy weight and BMI. Our aim is to give you weight loss tools such as a BMI Calculator to lose weight and keep it off.