BMI: What is it?

May 20, 2011

The acronym stands for ‘Body Mass Index’. It is one of the two yardsticks generally used together to calculate the healthy weight of an average person taking the person’s height as the base. It is ideal to also differentiate an overweight person from an obese one.

Most adults should have the desirable BMI between 20 and 24. A patient is deemed overweight if the BMI is between 25 and 29.9. The BMI of an obese person will be 30 and above.