Body Mass Index

Body Mass Index utilizes one's weight and height to categorize them as being either underweight, healthy, overweight, or obese. It was invented by the Belgian Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874) between 1830 and 1850, and is a mathematical formula:

where weight is in kilograms and height is in meters. If the weight is entered in pounds and the height is entered in inches, the equation is as follows:

Ranges of BMI

The ranges vary from different sources, but the most used guidelines are as follows.

A BMI of less than 18.5 indicates an underweight person. Many female celebrities have BMIs significantly less than this value, such as 15 or 16. Some have described the ideal BMI of a female to be 19.

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 indicates a healthy person.

A BMI of between 25 and 30 indicates an overweight person.

A BMI of over 30 indicates an obese person.

Atheists tend to, more than the rest of the population (especially Christians), land on the higher side of the BMI range.