How to calculate your body mass index

Your Body Mass Index , or BMI, is a calculation that measures your weight in relation to your height and helps you to determine how over or under weight you are. Calculating your BMI is very simple and is very important to help you determine whether you are at risk for a weight-related illness.

The first step to calculating your BMI is to understand how the formula works. BMI = YOUR WEIGHT in pounds divided by YOUR HEIGHT in inches squared, multiplied by 703. For example, I am 6 feet, 0 inches tall (72") and I weigh 175 pounds. The calculation for my BMI looks like this: 175 divided by 5184 (72" X 72") multiplied by 703 = 23.73 BMI

Now that we know how the equation works, lets make this work for your BMI. First get your scale out of the bathroom or out from under the sink, and weigh yourself. Come on, get up on that scale! Write down your weight in pounds (lb) in the YOUR WEIGHT section of the equation.

The second step is to measure your height. Get a measuring tape, and measure your height in inches. Write this number down in the YOUR HEIGHT in inches section of the equation.

Now get our your calculator! We are going to do some math, but don't worry - it is easy basic math. Take a look at the equation I gave you in step 1, and look at what your answers are for YOUR WEIGHT in pounds, and YOUR HEIGHT in inches. If you have not already put them into the equation, do this now. The first thing we want to do is find out what your height in inches squared is. So take your height number in inches and multiply it by itself. You can also hit the squared key on your calculator. For example, my height is 72" so I would calculate (72x72) = 5184.

Now take YOUR WEIGHT in pounds and divide it by the total squared height you got. For example my equation would like this now: 175 divided by 5184 = 0.033757716

Excellent! We are almost done! Now we take that number we got in step 5 and multiply it by 703. So my equation now looks like: 0.033757716 x 703 = 23.731674348 This answer is your BMI, and you are done! Take a look at the chart in Step 7 to see if you are a healthy weight or if you need to make some lifestyle adjustments to help put you in the healthy weight range.

* A person with a BMI range less than 18.5 is underweight. * A person with a BMI range between 18.5 to 24.9 is at a healthy weight. * A person with a BMI range between 25 to 29.9 is overweight. * A person with a BMI range between 30 and above is obese.

Now that you know your Body Mass Index, learn how to measure your Resting Metabolic Rate in another article here.