What is Body Mass Index (BMI)?
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a simple calculation using a person's height and weight. The formula is BMI = kg/m2 where kg is a person's weight in kilograms and m2 is their height in metres squared.
A BMI of 25.0 or more is overweight, while the healthy range is 18.5 to 24.9. BMI applies to most adults 18-65 years.
Limitations of BMI
BMI is a useful screening tool, but it does not diagnose the body fatness or health of an individual. For example, muscular athletes may have a high BMI because of increased muscle mass rather than increased body fatness.
- It doesn't distinguish between muscle and fat.
- It doesn't account for age, sex, or ethnicity.
- It doesn't capture distribution of body fat.
