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Healthy BMI range: 18.5 kg/m2 - 25 kg/m2
BMI Calculator
Obesity is a growing concern amongst people around the world, and India is not far behind. As per some recent reports by National Family Health Survey, it has been found that one in every four individuals in this country is obese, which means around 25% of the entire population is obese. This is scary as obesity is the root cause of many life-threatening diseases like heart attacks, Type II diabetes, PCOS, and a lot more.
If you are concerned about your weight and want to know whether you are obese or have the right weight or not, you can find out with the BMI calculator. You can also refer to the BMI chart given above to find out the right BMI according to your height.
This article will help you understand how bmi calculator works, how you can use it, the risks of being overweight or underweight, and even tips for maintaining a healthy BMI and a lot more.
What is BMI (Body Mass Index)?
BMI or Body Mass Index or bmi index can be referred to as a metric to measure or evaluate whether a person’s body weight is accurate according to that person’s height or not. Gaining weight doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is becoming overweight. Let’s take an example to understand this better. Suppose, you and your friend went for a weight measurement and found out that you are weighing 80 Kg while your friend is weighing 70 kg. It may feel at first instance that you are overweight but that is not the right approach. You need to consider the height as well to analyse whether you two are overweight or not. Suppose you have a height of 5’7” while your friend is 5’. This means, even though your friend is lower weight than yours but her bmi index is higher at bmi 30 (approximately) as her height is short. On the other hand, you being the taller one, you are still not obese like your friend as your BMi is somewhere around 27-28. You can check the exact bmi index in the chart above according to your weight and height.
Now, if you are comparing your normal bmi range with a person of another gender, then the same will vary again. So, while height is the main factor for analysing body mass, the gender of the person also matters.
Source: https://patient.info/doctor/bmi-calculator-calculator
Underweight
Healthy
Overweight
Obese
Extremely Obese
What is BMI Calculator (Body Mass Index Calculator)?
A body mass index calculator can be described as a tool for calculating the body mass of an individual. There are two types of bmi calculation formulas that these bmi calculators use which are the International System of Units (SI) and the other one is Imperial System. These two will be discussed in detail later in the article.
So, bmi calculator is an online tool where you need to input your gender, height, age and weight, and the calculator will give you your body mass of yours and you can also check whether your BMI index of yours is healthy or not.
How is BMI calculated?
As mentioned above, there are two bmi calculation formulas which are used widely to find out the bmi index of individuals. Let’s discuss both in detail -
BMI calculation formula for the 'SI' measurement system
This formula of BMI uses weight in Kilograms and height in meters. The formula is stated below –
BMI = Weight (KG) / {Height (m)} ^ 2
Suppose, you weigh 70 kg and your height is 165 cm or 1.65 m.
Therefore, your
BMI = 70 / (1.65) ^2
= 70/2.7225
= 25.71
BMI calculation formula for the Imperial measurement system
Now, let’s see the Imperial system where weight is measured in lbs and height is measured in inches.
The bmi calculation formula under this method is as follows –
BMI = Weight (KG) / {Height (m)} ^ 2
Suppose, the weight of your brother is 80 kg which is 176.37 pounds and he is 6’ which means 72 inches.
BMI = [176.37/ (72) ^ 2] * 703
= (176.37/5184) * 703
= 23.91
So, using these bmi formulas you can easily carry out a bmi check. That said, using a bmi calculator can save the time you invest in manually calculating the bmi and also help you achieve accurate results every time even in a shorter period.
Understanding your Body Mass Index
While calculating body mass index is not so hectic using bmi calculator but what you need to understand is which BMI is right for you. For understanding whether you have the right body mass or not, you can refer to the body mass index chart by WHO given below –
Source: https://www.calculator.net/bmi-calculator.html
The table given above is for any adult above the age of 20 years. As per this table by the world health Organisation, the ideal BMI for an individual irrespective of gender range between 18.5 and 25. So, if you are above the age of 20 and your BMI is either less than 18.5 or higher than bmi 30, then you are probably underweight or overweight.
However, your BMI may vary if you are pregnant, muscular or aged. BMI index doesn’t apply to pregnant women as the body of the women during pregnancy goes through different changes and weight changes due to the baby growing inside and hormonal changes. Since, BMI helps in identifying how much fat your body is having considering your height and weight, for pregnant women, this won’t apply.
Similarly, for a person who does heavy work out and has a highly muscular body, their weight increases due to muscles rather than fat. Thus here also, BMI may not help analyse fat content in the body or evaluate whether he or she is healthy or not.
As per WHO, the BMI of Asian people cannot be compared to the body mass index of other people from other regions as Asians are prone to accumulate weight around their abdomen and this abdominal fat may not increase the BMI drastically and a person having fat under the skin may be healthier than the person having abdominal fat, even when the BMI of the latter is lower than the former person. People with abdominal fat are considered as apple shape and this fat is harmful to heart health and Type II diabetes. Thus, even though apple-shaped people may have lower BMI than Pear shaped people, the health risks are higher for the former ones.
Ideal BMI for Kids
Since the weight of the kids during the age from 2 years to 20 years changes frequently as these are the growing up years, the ideal BMI for these kids aged between two years to 20 years is calculated on a percentile basis. The table given below will help you understand the same.
So, if your child is having weight more than 95% of the children of his or her age, then he or she can be considered obese. Similarly, if the weight of the child is more than 85% of children of his age but less than 95% of the children then he can be considered to be overweight. A healthy BMI for a child is when he or she weighs similar to 5% to 85% of the child of their age and he or she can be considered to be underweight if the weight is less than 5% of the child of his or her age.
How to use Bharti Axa Life's BMI calculator?
If you are looking for BMI calculators for bmi measurement then you can use Bharti Axa Life’s BMI calculator which is a very simple yet effective tool to calculate your BMI or your loved ones.
To use this BMI calculator, you just need to input the –
After you enter these variables, you will get your Body mass measurement of yours and you can compare using the bmi weight scale.
Benefits of using a BMI calculator
If you are still wondering why you should use a bmi calculator, then here are some reasons which you can look at –
Firstly, to be healthy and fit, you should be aware of your weight as well as body mass. A bmi calculator helps you quickly measure whether you are having the ideal body mass or not.
As you can see in the above section, manually calculating body mass is cumbersome. You need to do multiple calculations to reach the actual body mass index. Moreover, accuracy can be at stake as well. While using a bmi calculator not only helps you calculate your body mass within a blink of an eye but also the accuracy is high.
Using the online calculator for measuring bmi is quite simple. You just need to open the calculator and input the variables like height and weight, age and gender and you get the results.
People are having certain fitness goals, this bmi calculator can be a boon in their life to keep them motivated by showing their progress.
Risks associated
underweight
overweight
While we always talk about being overweight as unhealthy and the health risks associated with it, we hardly talk about being underweight as equally harmful and needing to be taken care of. A bmi calculator can not only help you find whether you are overweight but also if you are underweight. If your body mass index is lower than 18.5 when you are above the age of 20 years then you are underweight. The risks of being underweight are always neglected but here are some of those risks which you need to consider –
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Being underweight can be related to malnutrition, deficiencies of vitamins in the body, and also anaemia which is lower haemoglobin levels in the body. All these are life-threatening and you need to take care of the same to be fit. Being underweight cannot be considered fit.
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Underweight people often develop osteoporosis which is a disease of the bones where they become weak to the context breaking down easily.
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When your body doesn’t have the right nutrition and vitamins, the immunity is bound to go down, isn’t it? So, being underweight makes you prone to diseases as your immunity guard has been down.
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If women are underweight, they can develop hormonal issues which can lead to difficulty in conceiving and even result in miscarriages.
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If kids and teenagers are underweight, they can have developmental issues too.
Since there is a myth around the world that to be fit you need to be slim and your weight must have to be on the lower side. However, the fact has never been the weight, it is your body mass which needs to be right.
The risks associated with being overweight are pretty common but there is a lot more to it. Some of the common risks
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High blood pressure and degrading heart health
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Prone to getting type II diabetes
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Risk of having a heart attack and stroke
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Obesity increases the levels of LDL cholesterol, which is considered to be the bad one in the blood vessels and lowers the level of HDL cholesterol which is considered to be the good one. This increases the chances of coronary heart diseases.
While the above-mentioned risks are pretty common and people talk about them but only a handful of them do something to treat these issues. There are other risks as well which are not much spoken about but are related to being overweight.
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If you are feeling fatigued, or even having sleep disorders, it can be related to your body mass index and it may be a sign of being overweight.
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Gallbladder issues can be also related to being overweight, surprising right? However, it can be worse, gallbladder cancers, breast cancers, endometriosis, and PCOS/PCOD are just a few of many life-threatening diseases that are linked to being overweight.
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However, the main shocker can be your mental health being connected to your weight. Yes, if you are overweight, getting clinical depression, and anxiety issues may not be rare.
Tips to maintain a healthy BMI
Have you already started calculating your body mass index? If not, then do it as that can be the first step towards maintaining a healthy BMI. Unless you know whether you have a healthy BMI or not, you will be at risk of being unhealthy. Here are certain tips for you to have a healthy BMI –
Nothing can beat the benefits of having a diet that constituted of fresh vegetables, and fruits. If you are a meat eater, then always make sure, the meat is not processed. Avoiding processed food of any kind is a healthy choice.
Make sure, you are regularly exercising at least for half an hour to be physically active. In today’s lifestyle, the major problem that we all face is inactivity in physical terms.
Get enough sunlight – at least soaking in the sun for ten minutes daily is necessary for having enough vitamin D.
Eat smaller meals and frequent ones. This will help in easy digestion and better metabolism.
Keep a check on the body mass index with the bmi calculator to keep motivated and keep going.
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Frequently Asked Questions about BMI
What is BMI?
BMI stands for Body mass index. It is a metric used to understand the portion of fat content in your body. It helps in determining whether you are underweight or overweight or having a healthy weight.
Where can I find BMI calculator?
You can find online calculators for checking BMI. You can use Bharti Axa Life’s BMI calculator as well for quickly checking your BMI.
Is the ideal BMI for men and women different?
The ideal BMI for a person aged over 20 years is between 18.5 and 25 whether he is a man or a women. BMI has nothing to do with gender in particular. However, usually, male counterparts have higher body mass index due to their muscular structure.
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