How accurate are BMI charts?
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prncsstff
Posts: 16 Member
According to BMI standards I'm around a 17.6, but I feel healthy at this weight and I eat enough not to be hungry and I exercise. Since the BMI chart is just based on averages, does it matter if it says I'm underweight? If I overall feel healthy, should I just continue what I am doing? I also don't look underweight because I think I have a small frame. Opinions please!
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I think the only time bmi should be completely disregarded is when someone has more muscle mass causing them to be overweight or obese according to BMI charts when in reality their BF% is in a healthy range.
Eating according to hunger isn't a good indication that you're eating sufficient calories0 -
17.6 is really low, like .1 above weight criteria for anorexia. If you are eating sufficiently you are probably OK but I'd hazard to guess that you do look underweight0
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i pay NO attention to the BMI chart, because it doesn't take muscle mass, lifestyle, genetics, etc into account. it says i am severly obese, but i SERIOUSLY doubt that. if i was, i am SURE my doctor, who has been taking care of me for over 20 years would have told me to lose weight.
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On the upper end, I don't put a lot of stock into it as others pointed out because it doesn't take body composition into account.
As you approach the lower end though, I think it's a somewhat better indictor. If you're at such a low weight for your height that you're under 18 I'd give some thought about what it's telling me.
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As I say over and over, like a broken record, the scale is only one indication of good health. It is not your only means of measurement.0
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BMI charts are not based on averages... it's a range of what is determined healthy by medical scientists. If it were based on averages, then BMI charts would be telling people it's okay to be overweight since the average weight is no longer in the healthy weight range. For men in the US, the average BMI is 26.6 and for women 26.5. Neither are considered "normal weight" since that is at a maximum of 24.9.
Some people might fall outside of the range... but for most (I'm guessing 98% of people), they should fit inside it. Without seeing a photo of you and without your doctor running tests, we will not know if it's appropriate for you to fall into the underweight category.
I agree with what has been said above. When you're near the low end of BMI, it is a much better indicator than at the top (that being said, there are fewer people in the country with high muscle mass and appropriate fat than seems to be implied on MFP). I'd wager you are not as healthy as you think you are.0 -
i pay NO attention to the BMI chart, because it doesn't take muscle mass, lifestyle, genetics, etc into account. it says i am severly obese, but i SERIOUSLY doubt that. if i was, i am SURE my doctor, who has been taking care of me for over 20 years would have told me to lose weight.
Ask your doctor if they think you should lose weight. It's a touchy subject and some doctors are hesitant to bring it up.
Pick up a pair of calipers and measure your body fat yourself. An acceptable body fat percentage should be between 18-25%.0 -
Its pretty good for most of us, especially at the two extreme ends. I agree that if you are someone who focuses on building muscle, probably doesn't apply well. But if it says your obese, you probably are or at least overweight. Likewise, OP, you probably are underweight.
OP, why are you on MFP? What kind of exercise do you do? What is your diet like?0 -
Okay so first I'm multiple disabled and I have a few problems so even if I eat like crazy I have a really hard time gaining or maintaining weight.
My question is when did they change the stupid BMI chart?
I used to get my ensure paid for by my insurance as long as my weight was under 125 pounds and I am 5'3.
Now I'm being told that with the new chart I can be as low as a hundred pounds and my BMI is 18 and that is perfectly fine - so the insurance won't pay for the ensure anymore because they don't consider me to be underweight!
It is aggravating beyond belief because at 100 pounds I am very sick! Right now I am barely cracking 116, and I feel miserable and I'm freezing cold all the time.
When I first started seeing my nutritionist I was told that my ideal weight would be 125 because that's where I would be at an ideal BMI. I've been battling disability for 30 some years now. Anybody know why they change the chart so that you are considered to be okay even if your BMI is as low as 18? I still don't understand how they've been computed because I was told that at 5'3 125 pounds the BMI would be 20, but the chart I got handed by the insurance company says a different number.
It may not seem like much, but those three cans @ 250 calories each that were pretty easy to absorb made my life a lot easier. And I'm too low income to be able to buy the stuff. Not 90 cans a month. As a dairy free vegetarian, they were important for my protein count too.
Right now, I buy what I can with the $16 in food stamps and $30-50 in cash, and my daily protein is down to like 14 grams a day. (Uhh, yeah if you are poor and disabled stay out of New Hampshire. They give the kids what federal government mandates, they give the pregnant women what the federal government mandates, and everybody else gets $16 or $32 so that they can file their reports and say that they're serving this huge percentage of low income people when what they really are doing is throwing a few dollars to each of us, and not helping any of us much at all )
If I didn't know how to cook up the dry beans from the food pantry and then. Them into the blender, and make burritos I would probably be starving to death right now. The ensure wouldn't solve everything, but it sure would have made it easier for me to get 6 meals, 1500-1800 calories in.
Anybody with any ideas or information? The chart they gave me doesn't have any federal blank or anything on it to indicate what agency put it out so for all I know the insurance company just made up their own.
Thanks,
Brenda0 -
eckelsburrows wrote: »Okay so first I'm multiple disabled and I have a few problems so even if I eat like crazy I have a really hard time gaining or maintaining weight.
My question is when did they change the stupid BMI chart?
I used to get my ensure paid for by my insurance as long as my weight was under 125 pounds and I am 5'3.
Now I'm being told that with the new chart I can be as low as a hundred pounds and my BMI is 18 and that is perfectly fine - so the insurance won't pay for the ensure anymore because they don't consider me to be underweight!
It is aggravating beyond belief because at 100 pounds I am very sick! Right now I am barely cracking 116, and I feel miserable and I'm freezing cold all the time.
When I first started seeing my nutritionist I was told that my ideal weight would be 125 because that's where I would be at an ideal BMI. I've been battling disability for 30 some years now. Anybody know why they change the chart so that you are considered to be okay even if your BMI is as low as 18? I still don't understand how they've been computed because I was told that at 5'3 125 pounds the BMI would be 20, but the chart I got handed by the insurance company says a different number.
It may not seem like much, but those three cans @ 250 calories each that were pretty easy to absorb made my life a lot easier. And I'm too low income to be able to buy the stuff. Not 90 cans a month. As a dairy free vegetarian, they were important for my protein count too.
Right now, I buy what I can with the $16 in food stamps and $30-50 in cash, and my daily protein is down to like 14 grams a day. (Uhh, yeah if you are poor and disabled stay out of New Hampshire. They give the kids what federal government mandates, they give the pregnant women what the federal government mandates, and everybody else gets $16 or $32 so that they can file their reports and say that they're serving this huge percentage of low income people when what they really are doing is throwing a few dollars to each of us, and not helping any of us much at all )
If I didn't know how to cook up the dry beans from the food pantry and then. Them into the blender, and make burritos I would probably be starving to death right now. The ensure wouldn't solve everything, but it sure would have made it easier for me to get 6 meals, 1500-1800 calories in.
Anybody with any ideas or information? The chart they gave me doesn't have any federal blank or anything on it to indicate what agency put it out so for all I know the insurance company just made up their own.
Thanks,
Brenda
If you're dairy free you probably don't want ensure... You probably need your doctor to talk to your insurance company. I've had stuff covered all the time because doctor writes whatever is medically necessary. For instance, my health insurance pays for my contact lenses because I have an eye disease instead of my vision insurance.
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i pay NO attention to the BMI chart, because it doesn't take muscle mass, lifestyle, genetics, etc into account. it says i am severly obese, but i SERIOUSLY doubt that. if i was, i am SURE my doctor, who has been taking care of me for over 20 years would have told me to lose weight.
Not many doctors do. They've never told my morbidly obese mother, nor my obese brother and nephew.
Personally I do take the BMI charts as a serious indicator but with some limitations. I know many of the All Blacks are considered to be obese if you simly look at the BMI stats. However obese there is nonsense as these guys are almost solid muscle.
However as I have asolutely no rason to think that I could be anywhere near as fit and muscularly trained as those legends of rugby I'd consider myself part of the 98% that happily fits in the BMI system. @ 26,5 but with a waist in the 68cm region I know I am approaching the right levels, but not quite there yet0 -
i pay NO attention to the BMI chart, because it doesn't take muscle mass, lifestyle, genetics, etc into account. it says i am severly obese, but i SERIOUSLY doubt that. if i was, i am SURE my doctor, who has been taking care of me for over 20 years would have told me to lose weight.
Don't want to be cruel or too blunt, but your doctor is doing you a disservice. The charts are a very good indicator for 85%+ of the population. Where they are not is if someone has a lot of muscle (low bodyfat %) for their weight. If someone was a point or so into overweight or obese and didn't have a low BF % just the measurement error. If the BMI says severely obese I would talk to the doctor about it. You are on this site so apparently trying to address it, but it would help if you had support/acknowledgement from your healthcare provider.
Best of luck.0 -
tiffanyyro We can't tell if you are a healthy weight or not. Do you have a doctor?0
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