There has been a lot of confusion about BMI over the years. BMI stands for Body Mass Index and is a statistical measure of the weight of a person scaled according to their height. Body Mass Index is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in meters.
Example for a 132 pound, 5’4″ female:
59.87 kg / 2.640625 m = BMI 22.7
According to the BMI chart, 18.5 or less is considered underweight, 18.5 to 24.9 is normal weight, 25.0 to 29.9 is overweight, and 30.0 and greater is considered obese.
It is important to know and understand your BMI because if it is too high, you may have increased risk of certain diseases such as diabetes, stroke, heart, high blood pressure or cholesterol. Proper nutrition and exercise will help with further weight gain or weight reduction. Since the BMI chart is a little bias (does not take into account muscle mass or fat mass, just total weight), I recommend checking your percent body fat rather than calculating your BMI. By doing so, you can track your progress a little better. If you have any questions, please let me know!
For a free BMI calculator and weight loss tracker, sign-up for MyDIR.