The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), in its new report, has increased the average body weight for Indians by 5kg. Accordingly, the average weight for Indian men has been increased from the 60kg set in 2010 to 65kg now, while that of Indian women has been changed from 50kg from 10 years ago to 55kg at present. Along with this, the earlier height for a reference Indian man was 5.6 feet (171cm) and a woman was 5 feet (152cm). It is now revised to 5.8 feet (177cm) for a man and 5.3 feet (162cm) for a woman. This will now be taken for normal body mass index (BMI).

According to the scientists at the NIN, the body mass index (BMI) of Indian people has been changed because of an increase in nutritional intake among the people. This time, the experts also included data from rural areas unlike 10 years ago where only urban areas were included in the data. Additionally, the NIN also revised its recommended dietary allowance and estimated average requirement (EAR) recommendations for Indians. Under the new guidelines, the definition for reference adult man and woman of the country has now been changed to 19-39 years from 20-39 in 2010. Scientists also stated that the 1989 expert committee included only the weight and height of children and adolescents from well-to-do families.

The scientists added that a previous expert committee in 1989 had taken the body weight and height of only well-to-do Indian children and adolescents. Another expert panel in 2010 had taken nutrition profiles from only 10 states for computing reference body weights. Both committees had arrived at the reference weights for men and women at 60kg and 50kg. Now, the 2020 panel took data from all over India, taking into account National Family Health Survey 4 (2015-16), National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau (2015-16), World Health Organisation (2006-07) and the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (2015) to derive the reference body weight values.

Health Recommendations By ICMR

  • The ICMR expert committee has, for the first time, considered recommendations for fibre-based energy intake. They have mentioned about 40 grams per 2000 kilocalories of food consumption to be safe. Dietary fibre, also known as roughage or bulk, is an essential nutrient that’s been linked to a number of health benefits such as normalising bowel movement, improving weight loss, lowering cholesterol levels, etc.
  • The fat intake for individuals with sedentary, moderate, and heavy activities has been set at 25, 30, and 40 grams per day for men, and 20, 25, and 30 grams per day for women.
  • As for dietary intake of carbohydrates, the expert team has suggested a requirement of 100 grams a day for one-year-old and above, and up to 130 grams per day.
  • The intake limit for common salt or iodine has remained the same at 5 grams per day, with the sodium intake limited to 2 grams a day. Lastly, an intake of 3,510 milligrams of potassium is recommended for an individual per day as part of his/her nutritional value to the body.