What is the BMI Index?

Do you know your BMI?

Your BMI index is a critical factor for determining where you stand in relation to being overweight.
BMI stands for body mass index and is a number used to help illustrate a person’s approximate health by using a simple measure based his or her height and weight.

Is BMI an exact science?

No but it provides a much better measurement than simply weighing yourself on a scale and helps medical providers understand your overall health profile better. In fact, your BMI index can help diagnosis many health problems which are directly related to weight. It also provides a very polite way to talk about weight with your doctors. Imagine if your doctor called you fat and said your problems were related to being so big? Its not a conversation any overweight patient would feel comfortable with and the BMI index helps patients and doctors communicate in a manner more appropriate to diagnosing the problem than having stereotypes or feelings of embarrassment enter the discussion.

You can calculate BMI with the BMI calculator on the right and also view a complete BMI chart here.

What does the BMI index not include?

If you have ever used a BMI calculator its clear the index is based only on two variables – your height and weight. Although the BMI index is a widely used and recommended measure of someone’s healthy weight status it still does not take into account several factors which also play a role in how healthy an individual is.

Factors such as a patients body size, bone size or athletic build are factors which are unique to almost every patient and extremely difficult to measure on any kind of wide scale. Take for example weight lifters or extreme sports athletics – many of these people may have an “overweight” BMI index yet because of how their body is conditioned its perfectly normal and within a healthy weight profile for the particular individual.

Now it’s important to realize that if your definition of extreme sports or weightlifting is jumping up of the couch to answer the doorbell ring of the pizza delivery guy under 10 seconds this is not going to qualify you as someone who the BMI index is less relative for. You have to be real and that’s one of the keys to how to lose weight fast or succeed in any weight loss program.

What is the normal BMI index score?

A persons BMI index will represent a score usually between 15 and 50. For people of normal weight the BMI index will fall between 18.5 and 24.9

• A BMI index under 18.5 is considered underweight
• A BMI index between 25 and 29.9 is overweight
• Obesity is defined as a BMI index over 30 with morbidly obese at a BMI score over 40

How can I learn more about the BMI Index?

Learn more about the BMI index with the following topics