Another way to look at it is that even though women tend to have higher levels of healthy body fat, which would make them heavier, men also tend to have higher levels of muscle, which weighs more and contributes to balancing this effect. There are no distinct charts for males and females because, among other reasons, BMI is just a statistical parameter and doesn't take into account the differences in body shapes and musculature between individuals or groups. You can see the chart in the section below. These ranges can be plotted on a BMI chart for females and males. We also include other subcategories that are in agreement with WHO guidelines. We will use this as a reference from now on. On page 9 of this report, there are all the BMI categories recognized by WHO and their BMI ranges.

In the year 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report called Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. However, its simplicity makes it very convenient as a first-approach tool to statistically determine if someone is underweight or has an obese BMI, so you can start looking deeper at why that is and if there are any health risks associated. BMI was never designed to be a diagnostic tool, and it has many flaws, which we will talk about later. However, it is a good statistical measurement so we know if there is anything drastically wrong with our bodies and if we need to worry about health problems. To discover what is a normal BMI or establish where you place in the BMI range, you should always use the metric system, that is, your weight in kilograms and your height in meters.īMI is not a definite measurement of anything health-related. In particular, BMI is calculated from these two variables by the following BMI calculation formula:Ī crucial remark about this formula is that the units you use DO matter. But for those who don't, and for the sake of completeness, we will briefly explain what is BMI, how it is measured, and how you can answer the question 'What is my BMI?' even without this BMI calculator for females.īMI stands for Body Mass Index and is a measurement of the relationship between two prominent body metrics: your weight and height. Most of you reading this already know what BMI is, what it stands for, and you probably have some idea of what a good BMI is.

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