Articles

A guide covers a whole subject; an article answers one precise question. This is where the second kind lives: questions asked often enough to deserve their own page, but which would be buried inside a general guide.

If you are looking for the wider picture instead — the full classification, the formula, the reference points by profile — our BMI guides.

Children & growth

Reading a child’s BMI growth chart

For children, BMI is read on a percentile curve, never against adult thresholds. How to place the point correctly and what the slope actually tells you.

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Pregnancy & postpartum

Pregnancy: why pre-pregnancy BMI is the reference

During pregnancy, current BMI cannot be read against the usual categories. Pre-pregnancy BMI is the figure that serves as the reference — here is why.

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Calories & metabolism

How many calories to lose 1 kg?

The 7,700-calorie rule comes from a 1958 calculation. Where it came from, why it overstates real weight loss, and how to reason without it.

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BMI & body indices

BMI 27: overweight, and then what?

A BMI of 27 falls in the WHO overweight band, close to its lower edge. What that number really tells you, what it cannot see, and what to do with it.

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Abdominal obesity

How to measure your waist correctly

Waist circumference completes BMI, but only when measured at the right place. The exact method, the common mistakes, and why thresholds differ.

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