Anorexic BMI Calculator

A psychiatric illness characterized by an eating disorder that leads to extremely low weights, anorexia nervosa is a complex disorder that can result in death in extreme conditions. Individuals afflicted with this disorder would try to control body weight by voluntarily starving themselves, through excessive exercise or by the misuse of laxatives, diuretics and enemas. Along with this, there is an intense fear of gaining weight and a self perception that is greatly miscalculated. In the majority of cases the patients are in denial and actually believe that they weigh too much. The subsequent steps taken by them to control their weight results in the drop of the body mass index or BMI.

Understanding Body Mass Index (BMI) and BMI Calculators

A widely used diagnostic tool, the body mass index measures the body fat based on the weight and the height of an individual. Developed by a Belgian scientist Adolphe Quetelet, it helps to calculate how healthy a person is, based on his weight and identify whether the person is underweight, overweight or obese. The relation of BMI to fatness differs for people of different age and gender. For example, the BMI of women is likely to be higher than that of men.

To calculate your BMI, just take your weight in kilograms and divide it with your height in meters. The result has to be again divided by the height in meters. For example if your weight is 60 kg and height is 1.50 m, then the BMI would be 26.67 (60/1.50 = 40 and 40/1.50 = 26.67). Thereafter you can compare your BMI to the weight ranges set out by the World Health Organization (WHO). This applies to both adult men and women but varies for children and older people.

Your BMI:	You may be
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5 - 24.9	Normal
25.0 - 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and Above	Obese

It is vital that while working out the BMI, the body frame and build also be taken into consideration. Therefore the BMI by itself may not be accurate for a weight trainer, a pregnant woman or an athlete. People who are over 60 years of age cannot calculate their BMI by this tool, as their bones start to weigh less due to old age.

Anorexic BMI Calculator

By filling in the height and weight in an anorexic BMI calculator, an individual can know his BMI which enables him to deduce whether he is anorexic or not. While a healthy BMI is in the range 19 - 25, a BMI index of 17.5 is considered to be an informal indicator of anorexia nervosa. However this is not an accurate diagnosis for anorexia as some people may have a low BMI and yet NOT be anorexic. Anorexia is a psychological condition which has to be diagnosed only after an in-depth psychological evaluation and laboratory tests, like, blood tests, electrocardiogram and bone density test.

Anorexia nervosa is an emotional disorder where the main focus may be on food / the avoidance of food but it also deals with unhealthy ways of gaining perfection and a desire to control things. In a society which associates unreasonable thinness with beauty, there has been a marked escalation in the number of young adolescent women with anorexia. Many of them die due to starvation related causes leading to other physical complications or end up committing suicide. It is important to treat such individuals with psychotherapy, family therapy and medication.

So if your BMI by the anorexic BMI calculator is less than 17, but you are eating well and not starving yourself, or your build is lean or you are very athletic, there is no need to panic. You may be underweight but not anorexic.