FitQuotaFitQuota

BMI Calculator

Enter your height and weight to see your Body Mass Index and where it sits on the adult range.

By Hammad ShahidLast updated

Units

Pick each one separately, and mix them however you measure. Your entries convert with you.

Height
Weight

Your height

cm

Your weight

kg

What is a healthy BMI?

For adults, 18.5 to 24.9. BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in metres squared, so 70 kg at 175 cm gives 22.9, and at that height the healthy band runs from 57 to 76 kg. The figure cannot tell muscle from fat, and the bands are for adults only: children are assessed against age-and-sex percentile charts instead.

Understanding your BMI

What is BMI?

Body Mass Index is a single number that relates your weight to your height. It was designed to describe populations rather than individuals, and it remains one of the most widely used screening measures because it needs only two easily obtained measurements. The categories on this page are the standard adult bands and do not apply to children or teenagers, who are assessed against age-and-sex percentile charts instead.

How is BMI calculated?

BMI divides your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in metres. If you enter imperial units, FitQuota converts them first, so the arithmetic is identical either way.

  1. 1. Convert your measurements to metric

    weight in kg = lb × 0.453592, and height in cm = (ft × 30.48) + (in × 2.54)

  2. 2. Convert your height to metres

    height in m = height in cm ÷ 100

  3. 3. Divide weight by height squared

    BMI = weight in kg ÷ (height in m × height in m)

For example, someone who is 175 cm and 70 kg has a BMI of 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) = 22.9.

BMI categories for adults

These are the standard adult bands used by most health organisations.

BMICategory
Below 18.5Underweight
18.5 – 24.9Healthy weight
25.0 – 29.9Overweight
30.0 or higherObesity

Healthy weight range by height

The healthy band is a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9, which works out as a different weight range for every height. Every figure below was produced by the same code that runs the calculator above, rounded to the nearest whole unit.

Weight range for a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9, by height.
HeightHealthy weight (kg)Healthy weight (lb)
150 cm (4’11”)42 to 5692 to 124
155 cm (5’1”)44 to 6098 to 132
160 cm (5’3”)47 to 64104 to 141
165 cm (5’5”)50 to 68111 to 149
170 cm (5’7”)53 to 72118 to 159
175 cm (5’9”)57 to 76125 to 168
180 cm (5’11”)60 to 81132 to 178
185 cm (6’1”)63 to 85140 to 188
190 cm (6’3”)67 to 90147 to 198
195 cm (6’5”)70 to 95155 to 209

Use it as orientation rather than a target. Sitting a kilogram outside a band does not mean anything happened to your health at the moment you crossed it; the thresholds are round numbers chosen for population screening, not cliffs.

Does BMI apply to children?

No. The bands above are the adult ones. Children and teenagers up to about 20 are assessed against age-and-sex percentile charts instead, because the healthy range for a growing body changes year by year and differs between boys and girls. Putting a fourteen-year-old through an adult BMI calculator produces a number, but not a meaningful one. This calculator is for adults.

What BMI cannot tell you

BMI is a height-to-weight screening measure and that is the whole of what it does. It cannot tell muscle from fat, so two people with the same BMI can have very different bodies, and a result outside the healthy band is a prompt to look further rather than a diagnosis of anything on its own.

Whether that matters for you depends on who you are, which is a longer answer than belongs on a calculator page. There is a full one in why BMI misreads muscular people, covering athletes, older adults, and the populations some health bodies apply different thresholds to. If you want an estimate of body composition rather than a height-to-weight ratio, the body fat calculator is the closer tool, with its own error margin stated.

Sources

Health note

BMI is a screening measure, not a diagnosis or a complete picture of health. The bands shown apply to adults only.

If you have a medical condition, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of eating disorders, or are making a significant change to how you eat or train, consider speaking with a qualified healthcare professional.

Energy

BMR Calculator

The energy your body uses at complete rest.

Calculate
Energy

TDEE Calculator

Everything you burn on a typical day, activity included.

Calculate
Body & nutrition

Macro Calculator

Protein, carbohydrate and fat targets in grams.

Calculate