Find Your Healthy Weight with Our BMI Tool

Designed for adults (18+), this calculator helps you:

· Quickly check your Body Mass Index (BMI).
· Learn about healthy next steps.

Your Health Comes First: While this is a helpful guide, it’s not a medical assessment. For any personal health concerns, your local pharmacist or GP surgery is the best place to start.

Who This Tool Is Not For

This BMI calculator is not suitable for:

· Children and teenagers under 18 years old.
· Pregnant or breastfeeding women.
· Individuals with an eating disorder or those who suspect they may have one.
· People with conditions affecting height, such as osteoporosis or scoliosis.
· Highly trained athletes and bodybuilders, as muscle mass can skew results.

Why? For these groups, BMI may not provide an accurate assessment of health status. Please consult a healthcare professional for a more appropriate evaluation.

What you will need

To use the calculator, you will need to know your:

Your height
Your weight

Understanding Your BMI Result

While a higher BMI can be associated with an increased risk of long-term health conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, it is important to remember that BMI is a starting point, not a complete health assessment.

Why BMI Has Limitations
The BMI calculation is based solely on your height and weight and cannot distinguish between muscle and fat.For example, individuals with high muscle mass, such as athletes, may have a BMI in the “overweight” range despite having low body fat.

For a More Complete Picture
To better understand your health,consider measuring your waist circumference. This can provide a more direct indicator of abdominal fat, which is a significant factor for certain health risks.


Why This is the Best Choice:

· Empathetic and Reassuring Tone: It begins by acknowledging the concern around a “high BMI” but immediately contextualizes it, reducing potential anxiety.
· Clear and Logical Flow: It moves from the general risk, to the specific limitation, to a constructive solution. This structure is easy to follow.
· Educational Value: It doesn’t just state the limitation; it explains why BMI is limited (it can’t tell muscle from fat) and provides a clear example.
· Action-Oriented: It ends with a positive, practical next step (measuring waist circumference) that empowers the user to take further action without causing alarm.
· Professional yet Accessible: The language is professional enough for a official health service site but remains clear and understandable for the general public.

The other options are excellent for different contexts (e.g., Option 2 for a quick-reference guide, Option 3 for a low-literacy audience), but Option 1 strikes the best overall balance for a standard public health website.

Why We Ask About Your Ethnic Background

To provide you with the most accurate health guidance, this calculator includes a question about your ethnic background.

This is because health risks associated with BMI can vary between different ethnic groups. Individuals of Asian, Black African, African-Caribbean, or Middle Eastern descent may have an increased risk of developing certain conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, at a lower BMI.

By providing this information, you will receive a BMI result and health advice that is more specifically tailored to you.