Are online BMI's accurate

Answer 1

Some are pretty accurate, but others are not. I would advise you not to use online BMI's because many are not accurate. Sometimes when they aren't accurate, they make you feel bad about yourself. They may make you think you need to lose weight, when you really don't.

One specific BMI calculator that I would advise you NOT to use, is the one on calculator.net. When I used this BMI, I typed the following information into the calculator: age: 13 sex: female height: 5' 2" weight: 100 lbs. My results were healthy weight, which was ok. But it listed me in the middle range of healthy weight. Which wasn't a bad thing, but I honestly thought I should be in the lower range of healthy weight. So I experimented to see how accurate this BMI calculator actually was. I pressed the back arrow, and changed my weight to 90 lbs. and pressed the "calculate" button. It still said I was a healthy weight. I went back again, and changed it to 89. Still, healthy weight. I Changed it to 88. Healthy weight. I continued going down, to see how little I could weigh, and still be a healthy weight. According to the BMI calculator, I could weigh as little as 84 pounds, and still be a healthy weight.