Your Body Mass Index, or BMI for short, is a ratio based on your height and weight. Designed by the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet, in the mid 1800's and first published by him in 1871, it was initially simply known as the Quetelet index. The term Body Mass Index was adopted in 1972 following a paper published by Ancel Keys, who declared BMI to be the best ratio to compare height and weight when deciding whether people were underweight, overweight or of a proper weight for their height.

If you ever have to go to hospital for surgery, measuring your height and weight in advance is a standard procedure, and your doctor or nurse may run your details through a machine which will calculate the data and tell you what your Body Mass Index is at that time. If you aren't planning a trip to hospital, but simply would like to discover what your BMI is here and now, Springfrog's online BMI calculator is here to satisfy your curiosity.

Enter your weight in kilograms and your height in centimeters in the yellow boxes below and press the Calculate My BMI button to show your Body Mass Index details in the green boxes.

Body Mass Index Graph

As well as giving you your raw BMI number, the calculator will tell you the World Health Organisation's clasification of your nutritional state. It should be borne in mind thatyour BMI is simply a rough appoximate value, because it does not take into consideration gender or the different types of bodily tissue which comprise your body mass. For example muscle or fatty tissue may weigh the same but the health risks of the two types of bodily tissue differ.

Age and gender also play an important role in the interpretation of the Body Mass Index. The BMI figures are primarily used to guage the status of adults between 18 to 65. Men have as a rule a higher portion of muscle mass in their body than women. Therefore, the lower limits and upper limits of the BMI classifications are a little higher with men than with women. Thus the normal weight for men lies in a Body Mass Index of 20 to 25 whereas with women it is between 19 to 24.

Ethnicity and race also may effect the ideal BMI index for an individual. Research in Israel suggests an ideal Body Mass Index of between 25 to 27 for men, which appears to be slightly higher than the World Health Organisation's optimal figures. The study in Israel found that mene with a BMI of 25 to 27 had the maximum life expectancy.

Despite it having some weak points, the Body Mass Index is a quick and easy method to obtain an indication of whether you are below normal weight, above the ideal, or obese. However, the most precise method to determine if you are overweight is to have a measurement done of the percentage of fat in your body.

The old addage that you should consult your doctor rather than any general advice you may find here on the web always applies.

BMI Calculation Formula

The formula for calculation of Body Mass Index is relatively straightforward. Your BMI equals your weight in Kilogrammes divided by the square of your height in meters. In other words, your BMI is a ratio to measure kg per meter squared, or putting it more mathematically, kg/m².

Please bookmark Springfrog's Body Mass Index Calculator for any time you want to check your BMI, and please tell your friends by placing a link to this page from your website or webpage. Thanks!