Nokia N96 App Review – Health Calculator

Name: Health Calculator v1.0

Description: Calculates BMI (Body Mass Index) & BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

Summary: Health is a big issue these days, and most people struggle to understand exactly how to lose weight or gain muscle. Now, I’m not about to write an article on how to do that, but this little application will give you a very basic idea about your current weight.

What it does is calculate 2 things for you. Firstly, it gives you your BMI (Body Mass Index) and secondly, your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). BMI is a calculation that uses your weight and height to determine if you are overweight. The BMI weight ranges, as set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO), are outlined below.

• If your BMI is less than 18.4, you’re underweight for your height.
• If your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, you’re an ideal weight for your height.
• If your BMI is between 25 and 29.9, you’re over the ideal weight for your height.
• If your BMI is between 30 and 39.9, you’re obese.
• If your BMI is over 40, you’re very obese.

The above information isn’t on the application which is a shame as the numbers you get might not mean much to people, although it will summarise and tell you if you are overweight etc.

You use energy no matter what you’re doing, even when sleeping, so the BMR calculator will calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day! You need to burn off the calories you take in to stay the same weight, burn more to lose weight or if you take in more than you burn off you will gain weight.

I’ve provided this information to complement the application so that the numbers you get will mean something. As a guide, men take in 2500 calories per day and women 2000.

If you weight train and have a muscular physique, then the BMI calculation is not going to be accurate because it can’t take muscle mass into consideration.  I’m going to use that as the basis for me being on the verge of overweight according to my results in the screenshots!  Muscle weighs more than fat.

You can use this for your own benefit or test it out on others to either encourage a healthier lifestyle or simply for taking the Mick!

Rating: 6/10. This calculation is nothing new and can be found all over the web, but it’s handy to have one on your phone! More information on the meanings of the calculations should be included in the application but at least I have explained it for you!

Forum discussion: Applications – Health Calculator

Download: Health Calculator

Enjoy!