Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. It’s used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems but is not diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual.
BMI was developed in the 19th century by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian mathematician, astronomer, and sociologist. Quetelet’s original formula, known as the Quetelet index, was defined as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters (kg/m^2).