Overweight is the BMI band between a healthy weight and obesity. This calculator turns your height and weight into a BMI, tells you whether you fall in the overweight range, and shows how far you are from the nearest band edge — so the number becomes a position on a scale rather than a verdict.
WHO thinness grades
WHO grade: —
History
What the overweight range means
For adults, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines overweight as a body mass index of 25 to 29.9 kg/m². Below 25 is the healthy range; 30 and above is obesity, which is further split into class I, II and III. The cut-offs are the same for men and women, but they are not the same everywhere: several Asian countries use 23 and 27.5 as the overweight and obesity thresholds because cardiometabolic risk rises at a lower BMI in those populations.
| Classification | BMI (kg/m²) |
|---|---|
| Severe thinness | below 16 |
| Moderate thinness | 16 – 17 |
| Mild thinness | 17 – 18.5 |
| Normal | 18.5 – 25 |
| Overweight | 25 – 30 |
| Obese class I | 30 – 35 |
| Obese class II | 35 – 40 |
| Obese class III | above 40 |
How the calculator gets the number
BMI is weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. In US units it is 703 × pounds ÷ inches². The result is a single ratio, which is why it is cheap to compute and easy to compare across a population — and also why it cannot tell muscle from fat.
A related reading is BMI Prime: your BMI divided by 25, the upper edge of the healthy range. A BMI Prime of 1.08 means you are 8% above the healthy ceiling. It is often easier to act on than the raw index because the target is fixed at 1.0.
Reading your result
- 25 – 27: just over the line. Waist circumference and body-fat percentage are worth checking before drawing conclusions.
- 27 – 30: the band where weight loss of 5–10% typically produces measurable improvements in blood pressure and blood glucose.
- At or above 30: obesity, not overweight. The health-risk profile is different and worth a clinical conversation.
What BMI cannot see
BMI measures mass, not composition. A trained athlete can be “overweight” by BMI while carrying very little fat; an inactive adult with low muscle mass can sit at 24 and still carry excess fat. Older adults tend to have more body fat at the same BMI, and body-fat distribution matters independently of the total. That is why the BMI band is a screening signal, not a diagnosis — pair it with a body-fat estimate or a waist measurement before acting on it.
Overweight calculator FAQ
Am I overweight if my BMI is 25.5?
By the WHO definition, yes — 25.0 is the first value inside the overweight band. Whether that matters for you depends on waist circumference, body composition, age and ethnicity.
Is BMI different for men and women?
The adult cut-offs are identical. Body-fat percentage at the same BMI is not: women typically carry more fat than men, which is why BMI is only a screening tool.
Does the overweight range change with age?
For adults 20 and older, the WHO table does not change with age. For children and teenagers, BMI is read against age- and sex-specific percentile charts instead, and the labels are “at risk of overweight” and “overweight” rather than the adult bands.
How much weight is one BMI point?
One BMI point is about 2.9 kg (6.4 lb) for someone 1.70 m tall, and about 3.1 kg for someone 1.75 m. The taller you are, the more weight a single point represents.
Related tools
- BMI Calculator — the full eight-band classification, including thinness grades.
- Enhanced BMI Calculator — BMI plus body fat, BMR, TDEE and daily calorie targets.
- Body Fat Calculator (Navy method) — tape-measure estimate of body-fat percentage.
