Coming to grips with BMI

AnnPT77

Here's one source saying that 18% of men, and a similar percent of women, are misplaced by BMI, when it comes to bodyfat (though the nature of the misplacement differs by sex) based on study data from around 15 or so years back:



Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/summer-of-science-2015/latest/how-often-is-bmi-misleading

Does that "break the chart"? I have no idea what "break the chart" means. (I doubt that 12% of the US male population are professional athletes, but I have no statistics.)

US CDC says (in a document aimed at health practitioners):

"BMI is a reasonable indicator of body fat for both adults and children. Because BMI does not measure body fat directly, it should not be used as a diagnostic tool. Instead, BMI should be used as a measure to track weight status in populations and as a screening tool to identify potential weight problems in individuals."

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/downloads/bmiforpactitioners.pdf

Does that imply a "broken chart", or a misunderstood and misused chart, or something else?

Personally, I think there's some excess of drama somewhere amongst the last few posts.

Mellouk89

dontlikepeople wrote: »

A man can lift for three months and be at an overweight bmi while lean.


And you thought MY statement was hilarious? Okay.

dontlikepeople wrote: »

You vastly over estimate how many people are fit enough to break the BMI chart. Vastly.

And yes, ONLY professional athletes break the BMI chart. If someone is BMI 26 and lean, that's not breaking the chart, it's still a reasonable estimate. But if you're BMI 26 and lean, you're in extremely good shape, significantly better shape than 90% of the western population.

Give me an example that proves me wrong, and that example will be an outlier. Unless you are professional athlete, the BMI estimate is very, very good.

I'm not even sure if I should take you seriously, I can post pictures of myself at 18 years old with a bmi of 27 while lean. I was not a professional athlete just a regular dude who lift weights at the gym.

paperpudding

Even me, who defends BMI in all of these threads, has said many times that sporty young men are often healthy slightly above the upper BMI limit - ie with BMI 's up to about 28.
They are not professional athletes, just active sporty young men.

That is not breaking the chart or being an outlier - it is slightly above the general limit for a sub set of the population.

Context matters - when I had a BMI of 28, my doctor, myself, any casual observer, could see it wasn't because I was a fit sporty young man, it was because I was a middle aged not very active plain old overweight female.