Free tool
Your BMI, on Indian standards.
Indian cutoffs sit lower than international ones — overweight begins at 23, not 25. A number that looks fine on a Western chart may not be.
Your measurements
Indian cutoffs
- UnderweightBelow 18.5
- Normal18.5 – 22.9
- Overweight23 – 24.9
- Obese25 and above
Enter your height and weight to see your result.
The limits of one number
What BMI cannot tell you.
It is a useful first filter and a poor final answer.
It cannot tell muscle from fat
Two people at 24.0 can have completely different body compositions. One is muscular; the other is what clinicians call metabolically obese at normal weight.
It cannot see where fat sits
Visceral fat around the organs drives insulin resistance and inflammation. Fat elsewhere is far less harmful. BMI treats both identically.
It cannot see your glucose
Insulin resistance builds for years while weight and fasting glucose both look fine. Only a CGM or a fasting insulin shows it.
Questions
About BMI.
Body Mass Index estimates body fat from height and weight — your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in metres. It is a screening tool, not a diagnosis: it does not measure fat directly, and it cannot tell muscle from fat or say where fat is stored.
South Asians carry a higher proportion of body fat, and more of it around the organs, at any given BMI than European populations do. Metabolic risk therefore begins at a lower number. Indian guidelines classify 23–24.9 as overweight and 25 and above as obese, where international standards use 25–29.9 and 30 and above.
BMI cannot distinguish muscle from fat, so a muscular athlete can be classified as overweight. It also says nothing about fat distribution, and visceral fat around the organs is far more metabolically harmful than fat elsewhere. Waist circumference, body composition analysis and metabolic blood markers give a much fuller picture.
If your BMI is in the overweight or obese range — particularly alongside a family history of diabetes, raised blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, PCOS, or a sedentary routine. A normal BMI is not a clean bill of health either: unexplained fatigue, weight gain or abnormal blood work all warrant a metabolic assessment.
A number is a start. Context is the answer.
A 60-minute assessment measures what BMI cannot.