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What is Body Mass Index (BMI) and why is it important for my health?

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number that is calculated mathematically based on your height and weight. The number is used to place you into a category of normal weight, underweight, overweight, obese, etc based on what your weight should be for your given height. These categories are based on what people of your height are healthiest (have lowest number of medical issues, lowest rates of death, etc). Understandably, the whole idea of BMI was created by the insurance industry as they looked for more ways to determine what people are high risks to insure and should have higher premiums. BMI is very useful medically as well, however, as people with overweight and obese BMI's have higher rates of many medical issues including such things as arthritis, asthma, heart disease, sleep apnea, reflux disease, death, etc. BMI categories are less accurate and useful for athletic people as muscular builds can cause people to be classified into an overweight or obese category.

Your BMI can be calculated by using one of the two following formulas.

English:	BMI = (Weight in Pounds x 703) / Height in Inches²
Metric:	BMI = (Weight in Kg) / Height in Meters²

Try calculating your BMI with our calculator to see where you fit. If you are out of the "normal" range, play around with the weight to see how many pounds you need to gain or lose to be in the ideal range for your height.