The Body Mass Index is one of the common measurements of obesity, which determines how heavy you are for your height. It is actually an indicator than a direct measurement of body fat.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters.
For most people, BMI provides a good idea of whether their weight is considered more than is healthy for them. However if your ratio of muscle to fat in the body is high, it may give misleading scores as muscle is heavier than fat mass. Also, it does not provide correct results for pregnant women and children.
For comparison, BMI is categorized into four groups according to the conventional WHO classification: underweight (<18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25–29.9 kg/m2), and obese (≥30 kg/m2).
BMI is always used along with many other indicators like waist to hip ratio, age, gender, family history, physical activity, stress, smoking, and many other biochemical parameters to determine health risks.
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