Free tool
BMI calculator
Weight in kilograms, height in feet and inches — the way it is actually measured here. Your result is read against the South Asian cut-offs, which sit lower than the international ones.
Your result
Enter your height and weight to see where you sit.
Why the cut-offs are lower for South Asians
At the same BMI, South Asians carry more body fat, and more of it around the organs, than white Europeans — and they develop insulin resistance earlier. The consequence is that type 2 diabetes and heart disease turn up at weights the international table still calls healthy.
The WHO Expert Consultation set additional action points at 23.0 and 27.5 for Asian populations in 2004. A Pakistani adult at a BMI of 24 is comfortably inside the healthy range on the international chart and past the action point on the one that applies to them. That gap is the whole reason this calculator shows both numbers rather than one.
Waist is on this page for the same reason. Two people at an identical BMI can carry their weight very differently, and the one carrying it around the middle is the one whose risk is raised. Where the two measurements disagree, the waist is usually the more informative of the pair.
Common questions
- Which of the two numbers should I go by?
- The South Asian one. It is not a stricter opinion about the same risk — it is the point at which the risk actually rises in people of Pakistani ancestry. The international figure is on the page so you can see how much the two differ, not as an alternative to choose.
- I am heavily built and it says my BMI is high.
- Then measure your waist, which is the number that separates the two cases. Muscle raises BMI without raising risk; fat around the middle raises both. If your BMI is above the action point but your waist is under 90cm as a man or 80cm as a woman, that is worth discussing rather than acting on the BMI alone.
- Does this apply to my children?
- No. Children and teenagers are assessed against age-and-sex centile charts, and an adult cut-off applied to a growing child is meaningless. Bring them in rather than using this page for them.
- My BMI is fine but my blood sugar is not. Is that possible?
- Yes, and it is common in South Asians. Type 2 diabetes at a normal BMI is a well-recognised pattern here — often with a raised waist. A normal BMI is not a reason to skip a blood sugar test if you have symptoms or a family history.