BMI is a crude measurement of fraction of body weight which is fat. Different ethnic groups have different body frames. What really matters is the amount of visceral, intra-abdominal, fat. Measuring waist circumference in conjuction with BMI gives a more accurate picture of disease risk.
Body Mass Index
BMI is a crude estimate of visceral (intra-abdomial) fat, the most important type of fat for looking at disease risk. For Caucasians a healthy BMI is between 20 and 25. For Asians the healthy BMI is about 4 units below that for Caucasians. Another measurement of cardiovascular risk that more directly assesses visceral fat and that is probably of general applicability to every ethnic group is the waist-to-height ratio. The circumference of your waist at the level of the umbilicus should not be more than half your height.
If you want to calculate your BMI directly go here.
