New App Compares Your BMI with People Around the World
I love charts and graphs (it’s the nerd in me, really), which is why it’s no surprise that I’m having some fun with BBC News’ new online tool that compares your BMI with global and country-specific averages for your gender and age group.
All you have to do is enter your age, height, and weight (don’t forget to change the latter two to “feet” and “pounds,” respectively—”meters” and “stone” will do you no good), and the app will crunch your BMI and offer insight on how it compares to the rest of the world. I screen-grabbed my results so you can see.
The program is based on data compiled by a team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which made a splash last month when it decided that the earth’s population is 17 million tons overweight—largely the fault of overweight North Americans.
Try out the calculator for yourself, then tell us in the comments if it turns up anything that surprises you. (Somalia?! Hello!)