Health & Fitness

Both calculators here implement formulas that are widely used in clinical and research settings, and both are more useful when you understand what they cannot tell you.

The BMI calculator divides weight by height squared to place a figure on a standard scale. It is a population-level screening measure, not a diagnosis: because it uses only height and weight, it cannot distinguish muscle from fat, and it tends to misclassify very muscular people as overweight and people with low muscle mass as healthy. It is a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict.

The adjusted body weight calculator is a different kind of tool. It combines ideal and actual body weight into a single figure used chiefly for weight-based medication dosing, where using total body weight would overshoot for drugs that do not distribute into fat tissue. It is primarily of interest to clinicians and students rather than to general readers.

Each calculator cites the authority its formula is drawn from at the bottom of its page. Nothing here is medical advice, and neither tool can assess an individual — please talk to a qualified healthcare professional about your own health.