Ideal Weight

A person with body mass index or BMI ranging from 18.5 to 25 is classified as normal weight. This category however is regional (country) specific and many local authorities recommends different range of BMI for normal weight like Hospital Authority of Hong Kong recommends BMI for normal weight range as 18.5 to 22.9. A normal weight or healthy weight person is generally regarded as having low risk towards developing heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes

Even thought there are various new methods invented to measure the fat content of the human body and obesity, BMI is widely used in determining the healthy weight of an individual. The body mass index or BMI or Quetelet index, is a measure of relative weight based on an individual's mass and height.

BMI is used in a wide variety of contexts as a simple method to assess as how much an individual's body weight differ from what is normal or desirable for a person of his or her height. There is however often vigorous debate, particularly regarding at which value of the BMI scale the threshold for overweight and obese should be set, but also about a range of perceived limitations and problems with the BMI.

Normal weight in children is calculated the same way as for adults, but is then compared to typical values for other children of the same age. Instead of set thresholds for underweight and overweight, the BMI percentile is compared with children of the same sex and age. People under 20 years of age and with a BMI between the 85^th and 95^th percentile are considered to be overweight.


Also See:
»   BMI Calculator (Body Mass Index)
»   BMR Calculator (Find your daily calorie requirement - Basal Metabolic Rate)
»   Ideal Weight Calculator (for Adult)
»   Weight Management (for Adult)