Body Roundness Index calculator

What your result means

The Body Roundness Index describes your body as an oval. A narrow waist compared with your height gives a low number, and a wide waist gives a higher one. The idea is that fat stored around the middle matters more for health than weight alone.

Our article on the Body Roundness Index explains how the number was developed. The link between waist size and health is covered in waist size and health risk.

Limits of this number

The formula was built from body scans in a mostly Western research group. There is no single BRI cut-off that has been agreed for Indians, so treat the number as a way to track your own change over time rather than as a pass or fail. Measure your waist the same way each time, midway between the lowest rib and the top of the hip bone, after breathing out gently.

The tool will not give a result if the waist is larger than the height, since that is almost always a typing or measuring mistake.

When to talk to a doctor

Speak to a doctor if your waist is growing, if you have high blood sugar, high blood pressure or raised cholesterol, or if you have a strong family history of diabetes or heart disease. One number cannot replace an examination.