BMI calculator, with Asian-Indian cut-offs
Most BMI calculators use international thresholds. For an Indian body those thresholds are set too high, so this one uses the lower cut-offs actually applied in India, and tells you what the international ones would have said too.
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. The calculation runs in your browser.
The cut-offs this calculator uses
| Category | Asian-Indian | WHO international |
|---|---|---|
| Underweight | Below 18.5 | Below 18.5 |
| Normal | 18.5 – 22.9 | 18.5 – 24.9 |
| Overweight | 23.0 – 24.9 | 25.0 – 29.9 |
| Obese | 25.0 and above | 30.0 and above |
Why the Indian numbers are lower
At the same BMI, South Asians tend to carry more body fat than Europeans, and more of it around the organs rather than under the skin. The practical consequence is that the metabolic risk which shows up at a BMI of 25 in a European population shows up nearer 23 here.
That is why a calculator that tells a 24-BMI Surat resident they are “normal” is giving them a European answer to an Indian question. The cut-offs in the table above come from the 2009 consensus statement for Asian Indians, which set overweight at 23 and obesity at 25, and defined abdominal obesity as a waist of 90 cm or more in men and 80 cm or more in women.
What changed in January 2025
Those 2009 cut-offs stood for fifteen years. In January 2025 an expert group led by Anoop Misra, working with AIIMS and the National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation, published a revised definition, and the important part is that BMI on its own is no longer the diagnosis.
The revision defines two stages:
- Stage 1. BMI above 23, with no discernible effect on organ function or on daily activities. Increased adiposity, and a reason to act, but not disease.
- Stage 2. BMI above 23 and excess waist circumference or waist-to-height ratio, and at least one of: a symptom that limits daily activity, or an obesity-related condition such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or fatty liver.
This matters for the number this page has just given you. A BMI of 26 with a normal waist, no symptoms and clean bloodwork is a different situation from a BMI of 26 with a 100 cm waist and a fasting sugar your doctor has commented on — and until 2025 the guidance called both of them the same thing. Almost no BMI calculator online reflects this yet, including the ones that correctly use the Indian cut-offs.
It is also why the waist tape below matters more than the scale, and why this page will not tell you that you are obese. That word now requires information a calculator does not have.
What BMI misses once you start lifting
BMI is height and weight. It has no way of knowing whether the weight is muscle or fat. A member who has been lifting for two years can easily read “overweight” while carrying less fat than they did at a lower weight.
This is not a technicality, it is the single most common reason people who are making excellent progress conclude they are failing. If you are training, your waist measurement and your logbook are both better instruments than the scale.
What to use instead
- Waist at the navel, measured unsqueezed, once a week at the same time of day. Indian guidance treats above 90 cm in men and above 80 cm in women as raising risk.
- The weights you lift, written down. If they go up while your waist goes down, everything is working.
- How your clothes fit. Unscientific, and the thing you actually care about.
Where a doctor comes in
BMI is a population screening tool, not a diagnosis. If your result concerns you, or if you have diabetes, thyroid problems, PCOS or heart disease in the family, talk to a doctor rather than to a calculator. If you want to act on it in the gym, that is what coaching is for.
BMI FAQ
- What is a healthy BMI for Indians?
- The cut-offs used in India are lower than the international ones. Indian health guidance treats a BMI of 23 and above as overweight and 25 and above as obese, where the WHO international thresholds are 25 and 30. This is because South Asians tend to carry more body fat, and more of it around the organs, at the same BMI as Europeans.
- Is BMI accurate for people who lift weights?
- No. BMI cannot tell muscle from fat, so a trained person often reads as overweight while carrying little fat. If you lift, treat BMI as a rough starting point and use your waist measurement and how your clothes fit as the better signals.
- What is a normal waist size for an Indian adult?
- Indian guidance generally treats a waist above 90 cm in men and above 80 cm in women as raising health risk, again lower than the international figures. Waist is measured at the navel, unsqueezed, and for most people it is more informative than BMI.
- Should I use BMI to set a goal weight?
- Not on its own. BMI is a population screening tool, not a personal target. A better goal is a waist measurement and a set of lifts that go up, both of which respond to what you actually do in the gym.
The research this page rests on
The 2009 consensus is what the table on this page uses and what most Indian clinicians still work from. The 2025 revision is newer than almost every BMI calculator online, including the ones that correctly use the Indian cut-offs, which is why the staging is explained above rather than quietly applied to your result.
-
Revised definition of obesity in Asian Indians living in India
Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 19, 102989, 2025 · Five-round Delphi consensus, India Obesity Commission, published online 15 January 2025
Replaces the BMI-only definition with two stages. Stage 1 is BMI above 23 with no effect on organ function or daily activities. Stage 2 requires BMI above 23 plus excess waist circumference or waist-to-height ratio, plus either a symptom limiting daily activity or an obesity-related condition. The authors' stated reason is that BMI alone diagnoses obesity poorly in Asian Indians, in whom abdominal fat and early comorbidity are common at lower body weights.
-
Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, 2009 · National consensus statement
Set the Asian-Indian cut-offs used in the table on this page: overweight at BMI 23 to 24.9 and obesity at 25 and above, against the international 25 and 30. Defined abdominal obesity as a waist of 90 cm or more in men and 80 cm or more in women. These stood as the Indian standard for fifteen years and are still what most Indian clinicians use day to day.
-
The Lancet, 2004 · WHO expert consultation
Found that a substantial proportion of Asian people carry high cardiovascular and diabetes risk at BMIs below the international 25 threshold. Declined to set separate Asian cut-off points outright, but identified 23 and 27.5 as public-health action points, which is the work the later Indian statements build on.