What's my BMI?

A healthy weight is the weight your body naturally settles into when you consistently eat a nutritious diet, are physically active, and balance the calories you eat with the physical activity you do.

There are a number of methods that can be used to determine a target weight that is right for you.

A healthy Body Mass Index (BMI)

A healthy Waist Hip Ratio (WHR)

Researchers have found that your WHR provides a more detailed assessment of how your weight might be affecting your health - particularly your risk of heart disease. WHR looks at the amount of fat stored on your body around your waist and hips. Most people store fat either around the middle (apple shape) or around the hips (pear shape). Having an apple shape is riskier for your health. If you have more weight around your waist you have a greater risk of lifestyle related diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, than people that carry weight around their hips.

The ranges below are for adults only:

Women should have a WHR of 0.8 or less. Men should have a WHR of 0.95 or less.

Calculating your WHR

Use our WHR calculator to work out your own WHR. To calculate your WHR, using a tape measure, first measure yourself around the hips where they are at their widest, sometime this is the top of the thigh for women. Then measure yourself around the waist where it is at its smallest.

Other ways to measure your weight

Checking your weight regularly and measuring your waist is a great way to keep an eye on how your weight loss is going, and to keep you motivated. But weight or waist circumference alone cannot distinguish between the pounds that come from body fat and those that come from lean body tissue, such as muscle and bone. For this, a more sophisticated body fat measurement is required, and that means either going to a specialist or investing in a home body fat monitoring device.