Calculating BMI Made Easy

If you have been trying to lose weight before, then I’m sure you are very much acquainted with the term BMI or Body Mass Index. So what exactly is it and what is it not?

You can see it as a tool that helps you calculate if you have the right weight compared to your body height. Adolphe Quetelet who was a mathematician and scientist invented it long time ago in the 1980s. He must have been good at what he did because the same index is being use almost unchanged to this day.

However the BMI can not be seen as the final indicator if you have have a normal weight for your hight, but it is often the first step to calculate if you are overweight. There are a number of extra factors that need to be examined, because the BMI itself doesn’t distinguish between body fat and muscle mass. So it does not work well for athletes and very muscular people, because their extra weight comes from muscle mass.

The formula itself is not that difficult. You just need to convert your weight from pounds to kilograms first. Then you also need to convert your height from feet into meters. Once you get that the rest is pretty simple.

The formula itself is weight divided by height squared, or kg/m2. So, take your height and square it (multiply it by itself). Let’s say you were five-and-a-half-feet tall. That is 1.7 meters. Now multiply that by itself and you will get 1.7 times 1.7 equals 2.89. Next step in this example is to get the body weight in kilograms and divide it by 2.89. Let’s say a person weighed 200 pounds which is about 91 kilograms. You divide 91 by 2.89 and you will get 31. So the BMI of this imaginary person is 31, which according to the scale is “obese”.

Here’s how the scale goes: A BMI of 18.5 or below indicates an “underweight” person. BMI of 18.5 – 24.9 is “normal”. BMI of 25 – 29.9 is “overweight” and BMI above 30 is “obese”.

Calculating BMI to determine how much weight you should lose to get to the healthy level can be of great help.

And if you are not familiar with the metric system you can actually calculate BMI without converting to kilograms or meters. Take your weight in pounds and multiply it by 4.88. Then divide that number by your height in feet, squared (as the example above). So for a 200 pound person who is 6 feet tall you would have to calculate 976 divided by 36 = 27.1. In this example the BMI indicates a person within “normal” and healthy weight range.