Caspian Healthcare › Obesity › Check yourself
Answer it properly in two minutes, using the cut-offs that were revised for Indians in 2025, not the international BMI chart. Nothing you type here leaves your phone.
The boxes start with example numbers, so replace them with your own. Height and weight are enough to start. Waist makes it far more accurate, and in Indians it is the number that carries most of the risk. Measure just above the top of your hip bone, not at the navel, standing, at the end of a normal breath out, tape snug but not digging in. That is the landmark the Indian cut-offs were derived with.
This is a guide, not a diagnosis. BMI does not distinguish muscle from fat, and a well-built person can land in a category that does not describe them. That is one of several reasons the assessment in clinic includes body composition rather than a bathroom scale.
In January 2025 a national group led by Professor Anoop Misra published a revised definition of obesity for Asian Indians. It moved the thresholds down, and more importantly it stopped treating obesity as a single number.
| Category | BMI |
|---|---|
| Normal | 18.5 to 22.99 |
| Grade I | 23 to 24.9 |
| Grade II | 25 to 27.5 |
| Grade III | 27.6 to 32.4 |
| Grade IV | 32.5 and above |
Alongside BMI sit three measures of where the fat is, which in Indians matters more than how much there is:
Stage 1 is excess weight with no measurable effect yet on how the body works. No complications, no functional limitation. The recommended response is diet, activity and behaviour change, taken seriously and followed up.
Stage 2 is excess weight that has started to act. To be in stage 2 you need a BMI above 23 together with a high waist or waist-to-height ratio, and then at least one of: an obesity-related condition such as type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, high blood pressure, sleep apnoea, PCOS or arthritis, or a limitation in what you can do day to day. Stage 2 is where the guideline recommends adding treatment to the lifestyle work.
Why this framing is better than a number. It stops two opposite mistakes. It stops a person at BMI 24 with fatty liver and a 98 cm waist being told they are basically fine. And it stops a person at BMI 31 with entirely normal metabolic tests being pushed into aggressive treatment they may not need. Both happen constantly.
Sources: Revised definition of obesity in Asian Indians living in India, Misra A and colleagues, Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome, 2025. ICMR-INDIAB-17, Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, 2023.
Obesity is assessed and treated at Caspian Healthcare like any other long term condition. A consultation is ₹400 and includes a blood glucose check and a diet consultation.
10-3-761/8, Ahmed Plaza, Vijay Nagar Colony, Hyderabad 500057
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9:00 am to 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm
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