The Revised BMI For Asians

BMI stands for body mass index. It is widely used as an indicator of body fat because of its simplicity and inexpensive.

BMI = weight (kg)/Height (m) x Height (m)

Since Asian is at a higher risk of getting high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, high blood lipid, and diabetes even with their relatively low levels of BMI based on the original WHO's (The World Health Organization) BMI cut offs for weight categories (see Table 1).

These risk factors can easily lead to diseases such as heart attack or stroke if they are not detected and treated early.

After examining the data from some 10 Asian countries, WHO recommended a new Asian model according to health risks, as shown in Table 2.