Tools To India

BMI Calculator

Enter your height and weight to calculate BMI. The result is shown against both the international WHO categories and the lower thresholds India uses.

Last updated

Used only when entering height in feet and inches.

The result updates as you type. Nothing you enter is saved, sent to a server or shared.

Your BMI

24.2

Overweight under the cut-offs used in India

How the result is classified

Indian / South Asian cut-offsOverweight from 23, obese from 25.
Overweight
WHO international cut-offsOverweight from 25, obese from 30.
Normal weight

Healthy weight range for your height

Using Indian cut-offs (BMI 18.5–22.9)Your weight is outside this range.
53.5–66.2 kg
Using WHO cut-offs (BMI 18.5–24.9)
53.5–72 kg
  • BMI does not distinguish between muscle and fat, and it says nothing about where fat is stored — which matters more for health risk than the total.
  • It is a population-level screening measure. It is not a diagnosis and cannot assess an individual’s health on its own.

How this calculator works

Body mass index divides weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. It was devised in the nineteenth century as a way of describing populations, not individuals, and that origin explains both its usefulness and its limits.

The WHO international categories set overweight at 25 and obesity at 30. Those thresholds were derived largely from European populations, and substantial evidence indicates they understate metabolic risk in South Asians, who tend to carry more visceral fat at a given BMI.

India’s national guidelines therefore use lower cut-offs: overweight from 23 and obesity from 25. Someone with a BMI of 24 is classified as normal weight internationally and overweight in India. Both figures are shown here because both appear in real medical and insurance contexts.

What BMI cannot do is distinguish muscle from fat, or tell you where fat is stored. A muscular athlete and a sedentary person of the same height and weight get the same number and face very different risks. Waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio capture more of what matters.

The formula

Body mass index

BMI = weight (kg) ÷ height (m)²

weight
In kilograms
height
In metres — divide centimetres by 100

Healthy weight range for a given height

minimum = 18.5 × height² maximum = upper cut-off × height²

The upper cut-off is 22.9 under the Indian classification and 24.9 under the WHO one.

Worked example: 70 kg at 170 cm

Someone 170 cm tall weighing 70 kg.

Step-by-step calculation for the worked example
Height in metres1.70 m
Height squared2.89
BMI = 70 ÷ 2.8924.2
WHO classificationNormal weight
Indian classificationOverweight
Healthy range, Indian cut-offs53.5–66.2 kg
Healthy range, WHO cut-offs53.5–72.0 kg

The same person is normal weight by the international standard and overweight by the Indian one. This is not an error — it reflects genuine differences in metabolic risk at a given BMI, and it is why Indian clinicians use the lower thresholds.

Things worth knowing

  • BMI is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. It cannot tell you whether you are healthy, and a number outside the range is a prompt to look further, not a verdict.
  • It does not distinguish muscle from fat. Athletes and people with high muscle mass routinely register as overweight while being metabolically healthy.
  • It says nothing about fat distribution. Abdominal fat carries more risk than the same weight elsewhere, which is why waist circumference is often measured alongside.
  • It is not valid for children and adolescents, who need age- and sex-specific growth charts, nor for pregnant women.
  • For older adults, a slightly higher BMI is sometimes associated with better outcomes, so the standard ranges may not apply.
  • India uses lower cut-offs because South Asian populations show higher body fat and cardiometabolic risk at any given BMI than European populations do.

Frequently asked questions

Why does India use different BMI cut-offs?
Because research consistently finds that South Asians carry more body fat, particularly abdominal fat, at any given BMI than European populations, and develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease at lower BMIs. India’s national guidelines therefore set overweight at 23 and obesity at 25, rather than the international 25 and 30.
Is BMI accurate for everyone?
No. It is a population screening measure that works reasonably well across large groups and poorly for particular individuals. It misclassifies muscular people as overweight, misses excess fat in people with low muscle mass, and does not apply to children, pregnant women or, in the same way, to the elderly.
What should I do if my BMI is outside the healthy range?
Treat it as one piece of information rather than a conclusion, and discuss it with a doctor who can look at waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar, lipids and your activity levels. A single number cannot tell you what, if anything, needs to change.
Is waist circumference a better measure?
For cardiometabolic risk specifically, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio capture something BMI misses — where fat is stored. Many clinicians use them alongside BMI rather than instead of it. Indian guidelines specify lower waist thresholds than international ones, for the same reasons.

Sources

Every figure on this page is traceable to the official source below. If a source has changed since the date shown, please tell us and we will correct it.