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The Body Mass Index, popularly known as BMI or the Quetelet index is a universally recognized statistical method for comparison of an individual’s height and weight. These calculations have been extended to measure the percentage of body fat of an individual using the same factors, that of height and weight. The tool is further used to calculate the healthy weight for an individual on the basis of his height. This ease of calculation has further extended its use as a diagnostic tool for the identification of obesity problems. The BMI was invented by Adolphe Quetelet a Belgian polymath around 1850. This was a part of social physics that was being developed in that century.
Body Mass Index is defined as an individual’s body weight divided by the square of the individual’s height. The unit used for the measurement is kg/msquare.
The BMI can also be calculated using a BMI chart which has weight on the horizontal axis and height on the vertical axis and the BMI is calculated using contour lines or colors for different BMI values and categories. BMI chart has a defined range showing underweight to hyper obese readings. The ideal BMI for a healthy person is quoted as 18.5 to 25. Underweight people have BMI less than 18.5 and a BMI greater then 25 are indicative of obesity. The BMI for South Asians are in the range of 18.5 to 22.5. This reduction in values is to compensate for the slighter frame of the people here.
The BMI values do not hold true for athletes and sports men with bigger frames and denser muscles. The BMI falls short here since it does not take into consideration the ratio of fat, water and cartilages of the body. Another area where it falls short is in categorizing tall pre pubescent children as obese.
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