We are about to turn into a new decade and sometimes we look back at guidelines and wonder if they are still relevant to us, and the Body Mass Index (BMI) is one of those recurring themes that comes up often, after all the BMI is over 200 years old.

To understand what BMI means to you, it’s useful to take a step back and understand what it’s measuring and why it’s measured.  These charts came from “actuarial” statistics, the sciency bit that life insurance companies use, and it tried to express a relationship between your height and weight.

BMI on its own as a measure is clearly not a perfect indicator of your health, however it is a useful starting point to indicate whether you are considered obese, overweight or normal, and from there you can take a view on the next actions in your health and wellbeing personal strategy.

So in summary, BMI is useful but also it is important to recognise its limitations, and not to use it in isolation as an indication of your overall health.

Here you have all you need to know about calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI) is right here.  This calculator and Body Mass Index (BMI) table are produced using World Health Organization (WHO) BMI classification data.

BMI chart for men and women are the same and calculated by this BMI formula.