Why a New BMI?

In its 5 January 2013 issue the Economist published this letter from Professor L N Trefethen:

The body-mass index that you (and the National Health Service) count on to assess obesity is a bizarre measure. We live in a three-dimensional world, yet the BMI is defined as weight divided by height squared. It was invented in the 1840s, before calculators, when a formula had to be very simple to be usable. As a consequence of this ill-founded definition, millions of short people think they are thinner than they are, and millions of tall people think they are fatter.

Calculate your New BMI

For more information about the New BMI and another method called ABSI, please see the info page.

To make a calculation, please go to absicalculator.eu and fill out the form. After submitting your data, not only your New BMI value will be calculated and shown in a table, but also another index called ABSI will be calculated. A graphical represention of both indexes will be shown. The submitted data will only be used to make a calculation and will not be stored on our servers!