Reverse BMI (Body-Mass Index)

The Body-Mass Index (BMI) is a measure for human body fat percentage, developed in the 19th century. It is a simple calculation based on body height and mass, but not very scientifically based. However, because of its simplicity, it is still a very nice first judgement of one's weight relating to your health.

Why another BMI app?

This application is the fastest way of finding out how much weight you should loose to get down to your "Ideal Weight", as most of us are (slightly) overweight. Just enter your length and check the reading for the Ideal Weight range. No need to enter your weight!

Why a Heart-icon?

The most practical application of this app is combatting overweight, which is pretty prevalent in the developed parts of this world, with countries like Holland and the US leading. And the problems associated with overweight are often heart-related. We care about your heart!

Why "Reverse"?

This app is about BMI which is a value like 22.3 for some person. Now this 22.3 in itself does not say much. What you really want to know is, for example: Am I overweight, and how much? Therefor, this app does not require you to enter your weight, but instead tells you about your weight. This app is easier to use than other BMI apps, that do require you to enter your weight, and also gives you more useful information, weigth info instead of a stupid BMI number. This is our concept of "Reverse BMI".

Practical example

Here is an example. Suppose you are a woman. Some 90 percent of woman are not satisfied with their weight, and you want to give this app a try. You know your data, say: 1.60 m and 65 kilogram. You just enter "60" in the "cm" box. The "1" and probably the "6" are already filled in. You then press "OK".

Then, the display shows "Ideal Weight 47 - 64 kg". You did not enter your weight, and will not see your BMI, but instead understand that you are only 1 kg away from your ideal weight!

More about BMI

The formula used is simply: BMI = Weight / Length-squared where you enter the Length, and the app fills in the several values of BMI that defines the ranges for overweight and underweight, resulting in Weight numbers that are displayed.

The BMI should be between 18.5 and 25 for a low risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, or diabetes. Given your length, this leads to the Ideal Weight range that is calculated and displayed. You will be surprised as to how wide this range is.

To learn more about BMI and weight issues, there are plenty websites to consult, starting with wikipedia. This app is just the perfect tool to hide the mathematics and give you information on the weight issues.

It cannot be stressed enough that the BMI is not a very scientifical method. Your health depends only for a small part on the BMI. The BMI is completely meaningless for many categories of people, like patients, children, pregnant women, trained athletes, extremely small or tall people, etc. This app is only provided to you to do a computation as simple as possible for a first estimation and for entertainment purposes. But for that purpose this app is the simplest tool available. Be wary of more sophisticated tools as more precision does not say more about your health.

More about this app

The app works with standard units like kilogram and meter as used in most countries of the world. A future release is planned to add support for american units. You can still use one of the many websites or apps that convert american units to standard units.

We didn't want to cause this unit issue to delay publishing the app, though. Nothing is perfect, neither will be this app. We still hope that this app is useful for you. Do use it, and show it to your friends. We found that many people are interested in the weight issue, and are surprised by the results of this app.

In case you like this app, or have any comments, do not hesitate to send an email to: rkwee@xs4all.nl

(Easter Egg: educational info, changing at each startup)