What is BMI and Why calculate it?

• The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a measure of relative size based on the mass and height of an individual.
• There are a wide variety of contexts where the BMI of an individual can be used as a simple method to assess how much the recorded body weight departs from what is healthy or desirable for a person of that height.

\[ \mathrm{BMI} = \frac{\text{mass}_\text{kg}}{\text{height}_\text{m}^2} = \frac{\text{mass}_\text{lb}}{\text{height}_\text{in}^2}\times 703 \] Example (SI): \[ \mathrm{BMI} = \frac{\text{70}_\text{kg}}{\text{1.75}_\text{m}^2} = \]

[1] 22.85714

Example (UK): \[ \mathrm{BMI} = \frac{\text{187}_\text{lb}}{\text{66}_\text{in}^2}\times 703 = \]

[1] 30.17929

Category BMI

• Undeweight <18.5
  
• Normal 18.5 to < 25
  
• Overweight 25 to < 30
  
• Obese 30 to < 35
  
• Severely Obese 35 to < 40
  
• Morbidly Obse >40
  

Bigger BMI values correspond to more severe health risks.

• The data set has the measure of the Body Mass Index (bmi) for 2107 people.
• Author Marcos Prates marcosop@est.ufmg.br, Victor Lachos hlachos@ime.unicamp.br and Celso Cabral celsoromulo@gmail.com
• http://www.jstatsoft.org/v54/i12/