Adult Wt|Ht Obesity Chart

Use this chart to estimate your obesity level based on your weight and height. An example is shown for an individual who weighs 80 kg (176 lbs) and stands 1.75 meters (175 cm or 69 inches) tall. Those measurements put that individual into the "overweight" category. This chart is to be used for adult data (male or female).
To convert pounds to kilograms divide by 2.2. To convert inches to meters multiply by 0.0254.

[reference data] [publications] [protocols]

USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center 1100 Bates Street, Houston, Texas 77030 Copyright 2000-2007 Baylor College of Medicine. All Rights Reserved.

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Understanding BMI
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a commonly used index of relative weight. BMI is calculated as weight (kilograms) divided by height (meters) squared. The index is often used to assess obesity in individuals. It is easy to measure and calculate; no sophisticated equipment is required. By convention, an individual with a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese. This applies to both men and women. For comparison, this would relate to a direct measure of approximately 25% body fat in men and 30% body fat in women. The situation is more complex in children, where the BMI threshold of obesity varies with age and sex. The charts below show how the BMI obesity threshold changes with age for boys and girls. Threshold BMI levels initially equal about 20, approaching the obesity level of 30 found in adulthood. Also included in the two charts are BMI levels at which a child is considered overweight, showing a trend similar to that of the obese value.

How accurate is BMI in predicting fat, and what are its limitations? This is important because body composition rather than body mass is the more significant predictor of health risk. That is, knowing the level of body fat is more important than simply knowing body weight. Studies have found that BMI is not always accurate in predicting an individual's levels of body fat. "Significant numbers of people with a BMI below 30 kg/m2 are also obese and thus misclassified by BMI"
1

"Measurement of body fat is a more appropriate way to assess obesity in people with a BMI below 30 kg/m2"
1

In one study, of the subjects with a BMI below 30 (not obese according to BMI), about one-third of the men and almost one-half of the women were obese according to their measured levels of body fat. Some individuals who were found to be obese judging by percent fat had a BMI as low as 20. The conclusion is that BMI assessment produces significant numbers of false negatives - seemingly non-obese individuals by BMI who nevertheless qualify as obese by percent fat. Individuals with a BMI greater than 30 are almost invariably obese, based on other standards, but significant numbers of individuals with a BMI less than 30 are misclassified. Race also has an effect on BMI prediction accuracy. Body composition differs among various races at a given BMI. For example, body fat in certain asian ethnic groups was under-predicted by BMI, sex, and age, when an equation derived from a caucasian population was used. BMI/%Fat ratios were also different among the asian ethnic sub-groups.
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The following tools are provided to help calculate and assess BMI. The form on the left is suitable for children, and provides reference information for comparing the calculated BMI to the normal population. Adults can go to the wt|ht chart to review their predicted obesity levels.

BMI Form for Kids

The BMI form previously seen here is no longer in use. Please follow the link below to go to the new BMI calculator. Interactive BMI Calculator You may be prompted to install a program called Java, which is required to run the calculator.

Chart for Adults

Click to see chart

References used on this page:

1. Frankenfield et al, Limits

of body mass index to detect obesity and predict body composition. Nutrition 2001;17:26-30.

2. Deurenberg-Yap et al,
The paradox of low body mass index and high body fat percentage among chinese, malays,and indians in Singapore. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2000; 24(8):1011-1017.

[reference data] [publications] [protocols]

USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center 1100 Bates Street, Houston, Texas 77030 Copyright 2000-2007 Baylor College of Medicine. All Rights Reserved.

Calculation of z-scores
(go to Outline) The second way to express the distance between an individual child's weight and the average weight of comparable children in the reference population is by z-score. This is a bit more complex but has certain advantages over percent of median and is widely used to present survey results. Some background is necessary before discussing anthropometric z-scores. A z-score, or standard deviation, is a measure of the dispersion of data. Some data are quite dispersed, as shown on the left graph, where the values for individuals may be quite different from each other. Other data are not very dispersed, as shown on the right graph, meaning that the values for individuals are quite similar to each other. If, for example, the measurement plotted on the graphs below is weight,

the population in the left graph has a wide range of weights. There are some very light people and some very heavy people. The people in the population on the right are much more similar to each other; their weights do not show such a wide range.

The peak of the curve is the average of all the measurements. The standard deviation is calculated from the actual collection of measurements. For example, you have probably seen measurements given as something like16.3 (SD = 2.3). The number after the "SD" is the standard deviation. If we add one standard deviation to the average and subtract one standard deviation from the average, 67% of all the measurements lie between these two numbers, as shown on the graph below. The area between the mean plus two standard deviations and the mean minus two standard deviations represents 95% of the measurements.

For example, is the average weight for a group of children is 10.0 kg and the standard deviation is 1.0 kg, then 67% of children in this group have a weight between 9.0 kg and 11.0 kg (the average plus and minus the standard deviation). 95% of the children in the group have a weight between 8.0 kg and 12.0 kg (the average plus and minus two standard deviations). The graph below shows the distribution of weights for all 80 cm girls in the reference population, as shown before. It also shows where on this graph our individual 80 cm girl is located. At the bottom of the graph is shown the average minus two and the average minus three standard deviations, calculated from the average weight and standard deviation of all girls who are 80 cm tall, as given in the anthropometry tables. We can see that our girl is slightly above the average minus 3 standard deviations and below the

average minus 2 standard deviations. Standard deviations can also be called z-score, hence the terminology of -2.0 z-scores (two standard deviations below the average) and -3.0 z-scores (three standard deviations below the average).

We can calculate the girl's exact z-score by using the formula:

We get the average and standard deviation of the reference population from the anthropometry tables. This table also shows the value for the average minus two and minus three standard deviations. This allows us to quickly tell where our individual child is relative to these two points without having to calculate an exact z-score. The table below is more like a real anthropometry table because it has the standard deviation, the average minus two standard deviations, and the average minus three standard deviations for this group of children in the WHO standard population.

Absence of acute protein-energy malnutrition, or normal nutritional status, is defined as having a weightfor-height z-score of -2.0 or greater. Moderate acute protein-energy malnutrition is defined as having a weight-for-height z-score of -3.0 to less than -2.0. Severe acute protein-energy malnutrition is defined as having a weight-for-height z-score less than -3.0. Our girl therefore has moderate protein-energy malnutrition, as defined by weight-for-height z-score.

But we have to remember oedema. As with percent of median, if the child has pitting oedema, the weight-for-height z-score is not useful in determining nutritional status and such children are automatically defined as having severe acute protein-energy malnutrition regardless of his or her z-score. But in fact, you probably will rarely have to calculate z-scores by hand. Several computer programs will do this for you if you include in the dataset each child's height, weight, sex, and the presence or absence of oedema. To calculate height-for-age and weight-for-age, you will also have to have either age or date of birth and date of interview, from which age can be calculated. However, you should be careful using such computer programs. They often have options and settings which you need to be familiar with. For example, most programs will exclude from analysis those zscores which fall beyond a certain range in order to not include z-scores calculated from obviously wrong anthropometric measurements. Below is a list of such programs. If you are connected to the internet, click the name of the program to go to the website from which you can download the program without cost. Anthro 2005

EpiInfo (cannot calculate indices using the WHO standard population) NutriSurvey (cannot calculate indices using the WHO standard population) SPSS, SAS, S-Plus, and Stata(The link does not provide the programs themselves. They are all commercial programs which are expensive. The website provides code to use in these programs to calculate z-scores using either NCHS:CDC:WHO reference and WHO standard populations.)

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