What is BVI?

BVI stands for the Body Volume Index and unlike the Body Mass Index (BMI), which just uses height and weight, BVI focusses on what’s on the inside, not on the outside.

BMI was invented in 1835 and the Belgium mathematician who invented it only ever intended for it to be to only be used to collect general population statistics, not to measure the health risk of a particular person. As such, like with most old things, it’s time for an upgrade.

Developed over the past 12 years, BVI is based on a simple concept that is easy to understand. People tend to have an obsession about ‘weight’ and we often ask ourselves – “How much do I weigh?” - “How much weight have I lost” – “Am I fatter or fitter than other people like me”. These questions can eat away at us, they can anger and frustrate us, but they provide no real solution for us.

Scans of 8 women with the same BMI of 30

BVI looks at where the weight is and helps us to understand what weight there is in a given part of the body and what that means for your overall health. With BMI, two people of exactly the same height can have completely different body shapes, meaning their different weight distribution poses different risks to their long-term health. That is where BVI can be used either as a replacement or as an add on, to distinguish between these people of the same BMI.

To provide solutions that actually work, BVI answers this problem:

Using algorithms created from extensive and real body composition data, the latest technology and validation from some of the world’s leading healthcare scientists, the BVI API provides body composition data based on someone’s weight distribution and their body shape. This includes predictions on visceral fat; an accepted and recognised indicator of health risk, normally collected by using expensive and static machines.

BMI is great because it is simple – everyone knows their height and weight, but that’s about it. It doesn’t really tell YOU anything.

With BVI, new mobile and camera advances allow us to deliver a new solution where data has been collected in over 77 countries so far, with trials currently underway in remote areas of India, Africa and elsewhere. Static body composition machines are not available there but the vast use of smartphones can show how the universal use of BVI is a real possibility.

The world has changed a lot since BMI was invented in 1835 and since BVI landed in 2007. We hope this helps to tell the journey of how BVI has progressed.

Thank you for joining us on the journey so far.