Health

Free BMI Calculator

Body Mass Index from height and weight, in metric or US units.

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Result

BMI

22.9

kg/m²

CategoryHealthy weight

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Short answer

Body Mass Index (BMI) is body weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. The WHO classifies BMI under 18.5 as underweight, 18.5–24.9 as healthy, 25–29.9 as overweight, and 30+ as obese.

What is the BMI Calculator?

BMI is a screening statistic that estimates body fat from height and weight. It is not a diagnostic tool but is widely used by clinicians and health agencies as a starting point.

How does the BMI Calculator work?

Convert height to meters and square it. Divide weight in kilograms by the squared height. The result maps to a category defined by the World Health Organization.

Formula

BMI = weight(kg) / height(m)²

Variables

  • BMIBody Mass Index
  • weightBody weight in kilograms
  • heightStanding height in meters

Explanation

For US units, BMI = 703 × weight(lb) / height(in)². The 703 constant converts pound-per-square-inch to kilogram-per-square-meter.

Examples

Example 1: 175 cm, 70 kg

BMI ≈ 22.9, in the healthy range.

Example 2: 5'10" (70 in), 180 lb

BMI ≈ 25.8, in the overweight range.

Applications

  • Population health surveillance
  • Initial clinical screening
  • Fitness goal-setting

Advantages

  • Simple to compute
  • Consistent across studies
  • No equipment beyond a scale and stadiometer

Limitations

  • Does not distinguish muscle from fat — athletes may be misclassified
  • Does not reflect fat distribution
  • Cut-offs differ for some populations (e.g. Asian adults use lower thresholds)

Common mistakes

  • Mixing metric and US inputs
  • Interpreting BMI as body-fat percentage

Tips

  • Pair BMI with waist circumference for a better metabolic risk picture
  • Track BMI over time rather than a single reading

Related concepts

The BMI Calculator sits inside the Health Calculators hub, in the body composition cluster. What body mass is made of and how it is distributed. Understanding the terms below makes the output easier to interpret and easier to compare against neighbouring measures.

fat masslean massadipositypercentilecircumference

Practical use cases and industry applications

Understanding BMI

BMI is a screening statistic that estimates body fat from height and weight. It is not a diagnostic tool but is widely used by clinicians and health agencies as a starting point. Within health calculators, bmi belongs to the body composition cluster, where it shares terminology and assumptions with closely related tools.

Learning how bmi is calculated

For US units, BMI = 703 × weight(lb) / height(in)². The 703 constant converts pound-per-square-inch to kilogram-per-square-meter. Working through the variables one at a time — BMI, weight, height — makes the result reproducible by hand and easier to sanity-check.

Using bmi to make a decision

Population health surveillance Initial clinical screening Fitness goal-setting Because outputs depend on the assumptions you enter, run more than one scenario before committing to a figure.

How bmi compares with related measures

fat mass, lean mass, adiposity, percentile all describe adjacent aspects of body composition. Comparing this calculator's output against those measures — using the related tools listed on this page — prevents a single metric from being read in isolation.

Frequently asked questions

Is BMI accurate for muscular people?

No. Muscle is denser than fat, so bodybuilders and athletes often land in overweight or obese ranges despite low body fat.

What is a healthy BMI?

The WHO defines 18.5 to 24.9 as the healthy adult range.

Related calculators

More body composition tools

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