BMI Calculator - Body Mass Index from your weight and height for adults, teens, and children

Calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index) for adults, teens, and children based on your weight and height. You can measure in feet, inches, cm, and kg or lbs.

BMI Result: 21.7

BMI Calculator

BMI Calculator helps to measure the BMI for ages 2 years and above. The BMI measurement is based on the age, sex, height, and weight of an individual. For children and teens, it will provide BMI category and percentile. For adults, it also suggests a healthy weight range for your height, losing or gaining the amount of weight to have the nearest healthy BMI value.

BMI Categories

The World Health Organization (WHO) categorizes BMI values in the following categories.

BMI for adults aged 20 and above

BMI	Category
Below 18.5	Under Weight
18.5-24.9	Healthy Weight
25.0-29.9	Over Weight
>=30.0	Obesity
30.0-34.9	Obesity class 1
35.0 - 39.9	Obesity class 2
Above 40.0	Obesity class 3

BMI for children and teens aged 2 and 19

BMI Range	Category
Less than the 5th percentile	Under Weight
5th percentile to less than the 85th percentile	Healthy Weight
85th percentile to less than the 95th percentile	Over Weight
95th percentile or greater	Obesity
120% of the 95th percentile or greater OR a BMI of 35 kg/m2 or greater	Severe Obesity

BMI introduction

Body mass index (BMI), formerly called the Quetelet index, correlates with body fat. BMI is a quick, simple, and inexpensive screening method to measure body fat based on mass and height. BMI is measured with body mass in kg divided by the square of height in meters. For adults aged 20 and above, BMI is categorized as underweight, healthy, overweight, obesity class 1, class 2, and class 3. For children and teens, It is further compared with other children and teens of the same age and sex and categorized into BMI percentiles. The more the BMI value or BMI percentiles the more fat you have. High BMI leads to

heart disease
high blood pressure
high cholesterol
type 2 diabetes
Stroke
Joint problems like arthritis
Breathing problems like asthma

Low BMI leads

malnutrition

Thus it is important to have the appropriate amount of fat which functions to protect organs and provides energy storage during illness.

BMI formula

BMI is calculated as follows in the metric units (The International System of Units)

BMI = mass (kg) / height (m)²

BMI is calculated as follows in US units (United States customary units)

BMI = mass (lbs) / height (in)² x 703

BMI percentiles

BMI percentile compares the individual's BMI from the growth chart with other children or teens of the same age and sex. Based on the chart, it will rank what percent of the reference population the individual lies in. For eg, if an individual BMI is 25th percentile, it means the individual BMI is greater than 25% of the reference population of the same age and sex.

Stage of Accumulation of Fat

Most children have lean mass before reaching puberty. During puberty, boys tend to accumulate large amounts of muscle and bone mass but not fat. On the contrary, girls tend to accumulate large amounts of fat around the thigh as well as the pelvic region. This is reflected in an increased BMI in both sexes. Later with an increase in age, believed to be due to hormonal changes, both sexes tend to grow fat in the upper part of the body around the belly leading to further increase in BMI.

Limitation of BMI

BMI doesn't indicate the actual amount of body fat present in your body. BMI doesn't diagnose your health condition. For muscular people, BMI can be inaccurate too as they have high muscle and low fat in their body. The BMI formula application is the same for males and females but female tends to have more body fat than male. So BMI should not be used for following people.

Pregnant woman
Athletes
Bodybuilders
Older adults

BMI chart for adults

This graph provides different categories for BMI.

BMI chart for children and teens

This graph provides different percentiles for BMI.