BMI Vs How you look/feel

paradi3s

ryanhorn wrote: »

A number (weight, BMI, etc) should never define you as a person. If you feel great, look great, and are happy, keep on doing you and enjoying life! Life's too short to conform to a perfect number if you don't need to!

This! :-)

MoiAussi93

tomatoey wrote: »

rabbitjb wrote: »

Laura3BB wrote: »

Well I think BMI does give us a good indication of where we stand....The definitions of over weight or underweights using BMI are based on long-term deleterious effects on health of our weight....
Striving for a normal BMI is generally a good idea!

for 75% of the population yes it's a goodish rule of thumb

but 25% of the population being outliers is a huge number of people - people who have more musculature, professional athletes, large frames can be healthy outside the statistical norm of the 19th century mathematician created formula that underpins BMI charts (by the way the guy who invented it in the 1800s said it shouldn't be used on an individual level, it's for population analysis)

this may be true, but i suspect a lot of people who ought to be counted in that 75% think they're in the 25%

I agree. And I think BMI fits more than 75% of the population well. The exceptions are relatively few. A large frame just means you should be on the higher end instead of the lower end. And few people are so muscular that it puts them over the high end...especially if they still have excess fat to go along with that muscle.

jenglish712

You can also look at waist to height and waist to hip ratios for other data points on body composition.

As others have mentioned BMI is an instrument developed for populations rather than individuals and is actuarial (if we look at 10,000 people underweight and overweight BMIs can be quite predictive of health, but may suck for n=1).

nxd10

Phill2488 wrote: »

Bit of an update. I've been to the doctor to make sure that there are no serious problems with me, and he said I'm perfectly healthy

Excellent