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BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in metres, and men and women read it on the same table. Which table, though, matters. Indian doctors use lower lines than the global WHO table, so the same number can carry two different labels. Rakesh, 38, works in logistics in Pune and stands 172 cm tall at 73 kg. An office health camp printed his BMI as 24.7 with a green tick for normal, and his cousin, a physician, called it overweight. Both were right, on different tables. Rakesh is a composite of the readers who send us this question, not a real patient.
For Indian adults, 18.5–22.9 is the healthy range, 23–24.9 is overweight and 25 or above is obesity. The global WHO table starts overweight at 25 and obesity at 30. Below 18.5 counts as underweight on both tables.
How is BMI worked out?
Body mass index is a simple sum. Take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in metres squared, that is, height times height. A woman who is 160 cm tall and weighs 70 kg works it out as 70 ÷ (1.6 × 1.6), which is 70 ÷ 2.56. Her BMI is 27.3.
If you know your height in feet and inches, convert it first. One inch is 2.54 cm, so 5 ft 4 in is 64 inches, or about 163 cm. For a quick check without an app, multiply your height in metres by itself and then by 23. At 1.63 m that gives about 61 kg, the top of the healthy Indian band for that height.
Scales at home and at a chemist's can differ by a kilogram or more. Weigh yourself on the same scale, in the morning, after the toilet and before breakfast, in light clothes. Take your height against a wall with your heels touching it, rather than trusting the number on an old licence.
The bands on this page are for adults aged 18 and over. Children and teenagers are read on growth charts by age and sex, so an adult table will mislabel them. For adults, what matters is which band your number falls in, and that depends on whose table the clinic or app is using.
Sources: [1]
What is the BMI table for Indian adults?
The Indian consensus statement, written in 2009 by a panel led by Anoop Misra in Delhi, sets the bands most Indian doctors use. A BMI of 23–24.9 is overweight, and 25 or above is obesity. The statement put the lower edge of normal at 18. Most Indian charts, and this page, use 18.5, the global figure, so the healthy band reads 18.5–22.9.
The global World Health Organization table is the one printed on most gym walls and international apps. There, normal runs up to 24.9, overweight is 25–29.9, and obesity starts at 30. In 2004 a WHO expert group looked at Asian data and did not replace that table. It added public health action points at 23, 27.5, 32.5 and 37.5, so countries could flag risk earlier.
The two tables sit five whole BMI units apart at the obesity line. For a man of 175 cm, that is the difference between obesity starting at 77 kg on the Indian table and at 92 kg on the global one. Rakesh's 24.7 is just under the global overweight line and well inside the Indian overweight band, which is why the camp and his cousin disagreed.
BMI table by height for men and women
These rows use the Indian bands: healthy below BMI 23, overweight from 23 up to 25, and obesity from 25. Weights are whole kilograms, so each band ends where the next begins. The same rows apply to men and to women. If you sit right on a boundary, work out your exact BMI.
At 150 cm (4 ft 11 in): healthy 42–51 kg, overweight 52–56 kg, obesity from 57 kg. At 155 cm (5 ft 1 in): healthy 45–55 kg, overweight 56–60 kg, obesity from 61 kg.
At 160 cm (5 ft 3 in): healthy 48–58 kg, overweight 59–63 kg, obesity from 64 kg. At 165 cm (5 ft 5 in): healthy 51–62 kg, overweight 63–68 kg, obesity from 69 kg.
At 170 cm (5 ft 7 in): healthy 54–66 kg, overweight 67–72 kg, obesity from 73 kg. At 175 cm (5 ft 9 in): healthy 57–70 kg, overweight 71–76 kg, obesity from 77 kg.
At 180 cm (5 ft 11 in): healthy 60–74 kg, overweight 75–80 kg, obesity from 81 kg. At 185 cm (6 ft 1 in): healthy 64–78 kg, overweight 79–85 kg, obesity from 86 kg.
On the global WHO table, overweight starts where the Indian obesity band does, and obesity starts five BMI units later. At 170 cm, that moves the obesity line from 73 kg to about 87 kg. If your height falls between rows, the BMI calculator on this site gives the exact figure. Use the average of two or three morning weighings, not one reading after a wedding dinner.
Sources: [2]
Is the BMI table different for men and women?
Men and women share one table, but a BMI of 24 rarely means the same thing in both. Dympna Gallagher's team in New York measured body fat directly in more than 1,600 adults. At any given BMI, women carried clearly more fat than men, and older adults carried more than younger ones of either sex.
So a BMI of 24 on a 30-year-old man who plays cricket on weekends and a BMI of 24 on a 50-year-old woman after menopause can describe very different bodies. He may carry more muscle. She is likely to carry more fat, and more of it may now sit around the waist rather than the hips.
This is why most Indian doctors read BMI together with a waist measurement. The 2009 Indian consensus treats a waist of 90 cm or more in men, and 80 cm or more in women, as abdominal obesity. Measure halfway between your lowest rib and the top of your hip bone, standing, at the end of a normal breath out.
What is the best BMI for men?
The largest study on this question pooled 239 studies across four continents. It found that the risk of death from any cause was lowest at a BMI between 20 and 25. Risk rose a little just below 20 and rose steadily above 25, through every obesity grade.
The same analysis found that the extra risk from a higher BMI was steeper in men than in women. Each five-unit rise above 25 carried a larger increase in risk for men. It was also steeper in younger adults than in people over 70. For a man in his thirties or forties, staying out of the obesity range matters more than it does at 75.
For Indian men, the practical target sits inside both findings. A BMI from about 20 up to 22.9 is in the lowest-risk zone of the global data and inside the Indian healthy band. A man at 23 or 24 who has a trim waist and normal blood results is not in trouble. The same man with a 95 cm waist deserves a closer look.
What BMI range is healthy for women?
Women use the same Indian band of 18.5–22.9. Because women carry more fat at the same BMI, a woman in that range usually has a body fat level that sits comfortably in the healthy zone, provided her waist is under 80 cm.
BMI does not apply during pregnancy, and it reads oddly in the months after delivery while the body changes back. Women with PCOS or thyroid conditions may find their weight harder to shift even in the healthy band. For them, blood tests often explain more than the BMI does.
A low BMI deserves as much attention as a high one. A woman whose BMI drops below 18.5 without trying, or who keeps it there by eating very little, can lose bone and muscle over time. That is a reason to speak to a doctor rather than to celebrate.
Why do Indians have lower BMI cut-offs?
Because at the same BMI, South Asian bodies tend to hold more fat. Paul Deurenberg's review of studies across Asia found that body fat ran 3–5 percentage points higher than in white Europeans at the same BMI. Put the other way, the same body fat showed up at a BMI 3–4 units lower.
Build explains some of it. Shorter legs relative to the trunk and a slighter frame lift body fat at a given BMI. Where the fat sits explains more. Indian adults are more likely to carry fat inside the abdomen and in the liver, the fat most closely linked to diabetes and heart disease.
The WHO expert group saw the same pattern in the risk data. Across Asian populations, the BMI at which diabetes and heart risk began to climb ranged between 22 and 25. That is why an Indian doctor starts paying attention at 23, not 25.
When is a BMI number misleading?
BMI only knows your weight and height, so it cannot tell fat from muscle. A 28-year-old who lifts four times a week can read as overweight with a flat stomach. A 62-year-old woman who has lost muscle over the years can read as normal and still carry most of her fat around the middle.
Indian doctors have started writing this into the definition itself. In 2025 the India Obesity Commission, again led by Misra, proposed two stages. Stage 1 is a BMI above 23 with no effect yet on organs or daily life. Stage 2 adds a large waist or a high waist-to-height ratio, along with a related health problem or a daily limitation such as knee pain on stairs.
A global commission led by Francesco Rubino reached a similar view the same year. It asked doctors to treat BMI as a first screen and to confirm excess fat with a waist measure or a body scan before using the word obesity. If your BMI sits near a boundary, your waist reading is the better guide to how seriously to take it.
The same blind spot matters when the number is coming down. BMI falls by the same amount whether you lose a kilogram of fat or a kilogram of muscle, so a falling BMI only counts as progress if the muscle stays.
What should you do with your BMI number?
If you are in the healthy band and your waist is under the line for your sex, there is little to do beyond keeping your habits. At 23 or above, get out a tape measure and find your last blood report. Fasting sugar, HbA1c, triglycerides and liver enzymes are the four results most worth a second look.
A family history changes the picture. If a parent or sibling developed diabetes before 60, a BMI of 23 or 24 deserves more attention than it would otherwise. The same goes for a waist that has grown by a few centimetres in the past two years while the weight has barely moved.
Rakesh measured his waist that evening and found 94 cm, over the line for men. His father had developed diabetes at 52. He booked a blood test and sat down with a doctor to read it, instead of starting a diet he had seen in a family WhatsApp group. That is the right order: blood results first, then a target. For someone whose weight is already affecting their health, Metaboliq's doctors aim for a loss of up to 20% of body weight while keeping muscle. They check the waist and strength to make sure the muscle stays.