What Is Body Mass Index (bmi Calculator) And How It Works?

By Author: Dr Andrew Napier
Total Articles: 508
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Body Mass Index or simply BMI is only around from the eighties, when it replaced the height-weight tables used for determining obesity. Body Mass Index is a tool that also uses someone's weight and height in order to find out if the weight is a normal one or if the person is obese or underweight.

Since obesity is becoming a major problem lately, more and more and more people are interested in knowing their BMI. It is nothing complicated to find it out and to tell what the results mean especially that you can easily find a BMI calculator online. All you have to do is to fill in your weight and your height and it will tell you your body mass index in a second.

The Body Mass Index is a standardized tool and it the same calculations are done for both men and women. The height-weight tables that were used before it provided separate values for men and women, but this is not the case anymore. The calculation remains the same for men and women alike, as long as they are over 20 years old.

There are also BMI calculators available for children because they Body Mass Index does not follow the same rules ...
... as in adults. Sometimes the results can be misleading, like in case of athletes or sportsmen. They have the majority of their weight coming from muscular mass and even though the BMI might indicate overweight or obesity, this is not the case.

There is no point in trying to memorize the formula for determining the body mass index because there are plenty of BMI calculators available. It doesn't matter where you are from and if you prefer to use meters or inches, kilos or pounds, because most of the calculators allow you to use whatever measurement system you please. Most calculators also provide information about the results.

A BMI between 18.5 and 25 is considered normal. Below this value, someone is underweight and between 25 and 30 is overweight. Values exceeding 30 signalize obesity and if BMI goes above 40 the situation is already dangerous. BMI between 17 and 22 is usually indicating a good overall health condition and the life expectancy for people with this value is higher than for others. Women declare themselves happy as long as they have BMI somewhere between 20 and 22 and men are not so preoccupied about this aspect and consider their weight normal as long as their BMI is between 23 and 25.

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