cool short NYT article about BMI and size

tlmeyn

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/summer-of-science-2015/latest/bmi

KnitOrMiss

Talk about BFO! It's about time someone officially says it. LOL

wabmester

Here's the image. 6 guys at BMI 25.4.

KnitOrMiss

I don't know about you men, but most of us women figured this out a long time ago, that so many women carry their weight so differently! Particularly if like me, you never looked like the image they said you should! LOL

fishgutzy

A dunce at NIH actually tried to rationalize the use of BMI regardless one's body fat percentage saying that the heart has to work harder to push blood through muscle than through fat.
So I replied with a question. "The why does a man who is 6' tall, 200# with 6% BFP have a lower resting heart rate than a man same height and weight but 30% BFP?"
I never got a reply to that question.
BMI was never meant to evaluate individuals but as a tool for looking at populations.
But you can count of HHS using BMI to establish fines and penalties.
Some bureaucrats have even suggested that there should be government monitors in every employer's company cafeteria to monitor what employees eat. Sure, that will go over real well. And what is the monitor supposed to do when an employee that the monitor decides is overweight doesn't make what the monitor decides is the right choice? What about employees going off site for lunch or bringing lunch and eating at the desk?
Yup. Someone actually suggested this. You can't fix stupid. Even more so when Stupid is paid by the taxpayers.
And the CDC has a lot of helpful information for this intrusion.
http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/implementation/topics/nutrition.html

canadjineh

What you will notice from the diagram though is that the lower the volume per BMI the 'fitter/less fat' the model appears. The two highest volumes definitely are 'overfat'.

wabmester

Yeah, the formula for BMI is weight/(height^2). I assume the denominator was supposed to be an easy proxy for volume, but it's obviously not perfect.

minties82

Does an excess of muscle (I suppose it would be hard to define excess) have any negative impact on health or length of life I wonder?

My OH is rather like man #2 or #3 there, he does have a BMI above the ideal range but not a huge amount of fat.

My daughter is 2.5 and has an obese BMI which is ridiculous, she is the same size as all the other wee tots we meet. The nurse is always trying to get me to make her skinny. It ain't gonna happen. She is just right and has been on the same growth curves since she was born. My son is also verging on overweight at age 4.5 apparently but he's boney and has big butt and leg muscles.

Thanks for sharing that, it was very cool! I wish there were more models of people to look at.

I know that with my mother in law, we fit the same size clothes but she weighs a good 10kg less than I, due to our fat distribution areas and my higher level of muscle.

Foamroller

I notice that even though the difference in mean lbs liters is only about 3 lbs, there's a huge difference between person 1 and person 3. Comparing person 3 and 4 is even more telling, they're basically same weight. Yet person 3 is the leanest. I also notice that the leanest guys in this chart have more muscles in leg and arms, while the other ones have excess adipose tissue in gut and back.

This also confirmed to me that recomp is the way to go! (for me)

Scales alone are so stupid. I swear, I weigh myself in the morning ...drink a glass of water ...and the BF% jumps up 1 point. Which tells me that trending the BF% is a joke. Too many spurious effects.

Ty for the share

Edit: corrected wrong measure.