Yale threatened to expel student for having a low BMI...

FoodFitnessTravel

this is RIDICULOUS.

jaya_lakshmi27

This is ridiculous.

For one thing, a school shouldn't force anybody to change their body. It's a school, not a mental facility.

For another thing, a lot of Asians (including my family-we're Indian) just have a naturally slim figure. I'm quite curvy, but a healthy BMI for me is lower than another's. My sister is SUPER healthy (slim, athletic, perfect nutrient stuff), and has a low BMI!

Finally, having a low BMI doesn't say that you have anorexia. I know someone who eats LOADS and is INCREDIBLY skinny. You could be naturally skinny with a low BMI and fast metabolism. Your healthy weight would be lower than someone curvy! My healthy weight is one BMI point thing above my sister's, purely for body type issues!

This is a SCHOOL.

BinaryPulsar

I am petite and small framed. I also come from a small family. The women in my family are all 4'10 to 5'2.

mactaffy84

Though I think this is terrible, they didn't threaten expulsion. They threatened a medical leave, which is a huge difference.

brevislux

What? My uni never checked my "health record", weighed me, requested a doctor would run a test on me, or anything of the sort. How is it their business?

neandermagnon

forcing non-average people to be average is a form of discrimination. It's also stupid and unhealthy. I mean what did they expect this woman to do? Gain a whole bunch of fat to make her weight more average? Small framed people usually can't build as much muscle as larger framed people, even with the right training and diet. And women can't gain that much compared to men. So if she had succeeded in gaining weight until her weight was more average, it would have been mostly fat she gained.

Kind of disappointing that this is from one of USA's top universities... you'd think they'd understand about normal human variation and the dangers of expecting outliers to be average.

Madame_Goldbricker

What? My uni never checked my "health record", weighed me, requested a doctor would run a test on me, or anything of the sort. How is it their business?

The student had previously visited student health as a result of finding a breast lump. She was then called back in due to her low BMI being flagged up. Now I'm not saying its right that they used this as a 'one size fits all measurememt'.

However, there is a percentage of college students who do develop ED whilst attending. These are generally young adults who are away from family/peers who might be more aware of if the person has developed disordered behaviours. So the other side of the story is if the college hadn't flagged this concern up would they then have failed their duty of care?.

neandermagnon

What? My uni never checked my "health record", weighed me, requested a doctor would run a test on me, or anything of the sort. How is it their business?

The student had previously visited student health as a result of finding a breast lump. She was then called back in due to her low BMI being flagged up. Now I'm not saying its right that they used this as a 'one size fits all measurememt'.

However, there is a percentage of college students who do develop ED whilst attending. These are generally young adults who are away from family/peers who might be more aware of if the person has developed disordered behaviours. So the other side of the story is if the college hadn't flagged this concern up would they then have failed their duty of care?.

I don't disagree with flagging these issues (for obesity as well as eating disorders and being underweight), however they need to understand that BMI is not a "one size fits all" and that very small framed and very large framed people do exist and that overweight/underweight is relative to your frame size and body proportions not just to your height, and that more muscle mass will raise BMI.

I get this from the opposite end, as I'm large framed, naturally muscular and have a relatively long torso/short limbs, and these things give me a high lean body mass for my height. I would expect medical professionals to take that into account, and the fact that I lift weights, and check my body fat percentage, before making a judgement about how much I should weigh. And I'd expect them to do the same for small framed people as well. In fact they should do this even for normal weight people, because a lot of sedentary people have too much body fat, low muscle mass and low bone density and other poor health markers in spite of being in the healthy BMI range. Just because they're in the healthy range does not mean they don't need to be advised to do exercise and eat a balanced diet.

Unfortunately a lot of health professionals do no more than read off a BMI chart and take no other factors into account and seem to be unaware that people can fall outside the BMI healthy weight range and still be 100% healthy with no need to lose or gain weight, or that people in the healthy BMI range can be in very poor health as a result of a sedentary lifestyle and unbalanced diet, and that they too should be striving to be active and eat a balanced diet.

susannamarie

What? My uni never checked my "health record", weighed me, requested a doctor would run a test on me, or anything of the sort. How is it their business?

The student had previously visited student health as a result of finding a breast lump. She was then called back in due to her low BMI being flagged up. Now I'm not saying its right that they used this as a 'one size fits all measurememt'.

However, there is a percentage of college students who do develop ED whilst attending. These are generally young adults who are away from family/peers who might be more aware of if the person has developed disordered behaviours. So the other side of the story is if the college hadn't flagged this concern up would they then have failed their duty of care?.

Frankly I don't disagree with them calling her in for a consultation. But it should be enough to check that her weight is stable and she's always been on this growth curve.

DrMAvDPhD

I don't really think it was that bad for health services to call her back to talk about her weight. They are MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS before they are university employees. They saw something concerning and followed up on it. What is sad about this story is the absolute negligence of the staff, by not looking at her medical history or doing anything else to test her health.

BMI isn't perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. However, it is a well established fact that for Asians, BMI standards actually tend to OVERestimate how heavy "healthy" is. So this really shouldn't have happened. Interestingly, there is no race for which BMI tends to underestimate healthy weights.

serena569

My adult daughter has this same issue. She's 5'2" and weighs 98 pounds. Everybody wants to diagnose her with anexoria. And when they see her eat, they want to diagnose her with bulemia. She's always been little. She has no fat but she also has no muscle tone.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have a freind who could not get health insurance because his BMI shower he was obese. He is in great shape and solid muscle.

I understand the need for guidelines but we also need brains. Muscle mass makes a huge difference.

Achrya

I don't really think it was that bad for health services to call her back to talk about her weight. They are MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS before they are university employees. They saw something concerning and followed up on it. What is sad about this story is the absolute negligence of the staff, by not looking at her medical history or doing anything else to test her health.

BMI isn't perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. However, it is a well established fact that for Asians, BMI standards actually tend to OVERestimate how heavy "healthy" is. So this really shouldn't have happened. Interestingly, there is no race for which BMI tends to underestimate healthy weights.

Untrue. Evidence suggests that people of African descent do in fact naturally skew 'higher' (just as Asians skew 'lower') in BMI terms.

This isn't to say that the typical overweight person of African descent isn't actually overweight, before anyone gets their panties in a twist. But I will say I'm at the very top of what the healthy BMI range (Very top. Like less that .3 away from overweight).

czechwolf52

One important piece of information missing is her height, but I'm guess she is on the shorter side.

Unless she showed symptoms and characteristics of a eating disorder, then they should have never approached the topic. They should take her heritage into consideration. I'm white and my friend's mom is Korean, we are both the same height (5'2"). I have a larger frame then her, as people of Asian decent tend to have smaller frames. I would probably look sickly if I was at the same weight as my friend's mom. In fact we discussed BMI and race in my public health class. My professor said that black people can have a slightly higher BMI and still be healthy, while white people should aim for 23-25. In America, there isn't enough data to establish a optimal range for BMI for Asians right now, but she said they could be underweight or on the lower side of the normal weight range of the BMI scale and still be considered at a healthy weight.


Interestingly enough, do they have the same policy put in for overweight, obese, or morbidly obese students?

oOoNICKIoOo

I'm really tired of the public (and, apparently, now corporate companies and Yale) trying to regulate women's bodies. Period. Whether she actually looks ok is irrelevant. I don't want to live in a world where some other person or entity is worried about my health or body.

I definitely agree! I don't know if it sounds mean or not, but I feel like everyone should worry about themselves. I think that's part of the problem in today's society. We're so concerned with what everyone else is doing. Why don't we all just focus on "doing us." We need to do what makes us happy and healthy. If others actions aren't affecting you, then why bother making a big deal out of them?

BinaryPulsar

My adult daughter has this same issue. She's 5'2" and weighs 98 pounds. Everybody wants to diagnose her with anexoria. And when they see her eat, they want to diagnose her with bulemia. She's always been little. She has no fat but she also has no muscle tone.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have a freind who could not get health insurance because his BMI shower he was obese. He is in great shape and solid muscle.

I understand the need for guidelines but we also need brains. Muscle mass makes a huge difference.

Yeah, this is me also. I am 5'2" and my adult weigh has always been healthy between 98 and 103 range. I am a dancer, fit, lift weights, eat 2000 calories a day at least (often more). I've been this weight since age 16, and I'm 36 now, a mother of two and in excellent health.

I also agree that I think it was good for the school to look into it. The woman in the article is 5'2" (I read in another source), so 92 pounds does raise a red flag, but once you take her lifestyle and history into account you realize this is normal for her.

I love Neandermagnons replies on here (as always).

neandermagnon

I don't really think it was that bad for health services to call her back to talk about her weight. They are MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS before they are university employees. They saw something concerning and followed up on it. What is sad about this story is the absolute negligence of the staff, by not looking at her medical history or doing anything else to test her health.

BMI isn't perfect but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. However, it is a well established fact that for Asians, BMI standards actually tend to OVERestimate how heavy "healthy" is. So this really shouldn't have happened. Interestingly, there is no race for which BMI tends to underestimate healthy weights.

not true.

Neanderthals had BMIs in the overweight to obese range (based on archaeological samples). So not just a race of humans an entire species of humans. And as it's scientifically proven that there are neanderthal genes in modern populations, some modern people, regardless of ethnic group, may be larger framed and tend to be heavy on BMI due to inheriting these specific neanderthal genes.

Also, Inuit people, while not on average as large framed as neanderthals, are naturally heavy for their height and will have higher BMIs while still being healthy, for the same basic reason as neanderthals did - because being shorter and larger framed gives you an evolutionary advantage in a cold climate. So there's one modern group that BMI charts tend to underestimate healthy weights - Inuit. Ditto other modern people from very cold climates. neanderthals had the most extreme version of this build, mostly because they had to survive in extreme cold with only had middle palaeolithic technology.

interestingly, i've met quite a few short, large framed Filipino people, I'm guessing they either come from mountainous regions (hence cold-adapted body proportions) or they have Denisovan DNA (another ancient people similar to Neanderthals, while their body proportions are not known, I'm guessing cold adapted based on them coming from Siberia and being genetically more closely related to neanderthals than any other known group of humans)

In fact having studied anthropology I can tell you that humans come in a whole range of different heights and frame sizes, and that the general trend is from cold-adapted (short, large-framed) to tropical adapted (tall, small framed) with every variation in between, but in general larger frame sizes being found in colder places (including tall and large framed like Vikings/Scandinavian people) and small framed people being found in warmer parts of the world, including short and small framed (many East Asians, though short and large framed people are also found among East Asians so you need to be careful telling East Asians they should measure low on BMI charts.

Larger framed people will have higher BMIs and smaller framed people will have lower BMIs. And contrary to popular belief, frame size does not correlate with height.

Blanket statements about ethnic groups are not always helpful. Binary is from the same ethnic group as me, yet her body type/frame size is polar opposite to mine. Seems I got neanderthal DNA and she didn't. I'm not even going to say she got cro-magnon DNA because the cro-magnons were large framed compared to most modern Homo sapiens, albeit that they were significantly smaller framed than neanderthals. Maybe she got a more recent mutation that arose in post-agricultural populations because the agricultural revolution seems to have led to human frame size getting smaller (and Homo sapiens was already the smallest framed of all species of human).

Anyway, to sum up, yes there absolutely are ethnic groups that tend to be on the heavy side of BMI, to the point of BMI categorising them as overweight or obese when their body fat percentage is healthy, and additionally there's a huge amount of within-group variation that leads to the possibility of individuals of any ethnic group having a large enough frame for BMI to classify them as "overweight" when they're not. And for individuals, regardless of ethnicity, to have a small enough frame for BMI to classify them as "underweight" when they're not.

Iwishyouwell

What? My uni never checked my "health record", weighed me, requested a doctor would run a test on me, or anything of the sort. How is it their business?

The student had previously visited student health as a result of finding a breast lump. She was then called back in due to her low BMI being flagged up. Now I'm not saying its right that they used this as a 'one size fits all measurememt'.

However, there is a percentage of college students who do develop ED whilst attending. These are generally young adults who are away from family/peers who might be more aware of if the person has developed disordered behaviours. So the other side of the story is if the college hadn't flagged this concern up would they then have failed their duty of care?.

If weight is the criteria, how often are they failing at their "duty of care" by not threatening forced medical leave on overweight and obese students? After all far more people fall victim to disease and distress in relation to obesity in this nation than malnourishment and undernourishment.

Where is all this supposed concern for the fat students?

Madame_Goldbricker

What? My uni never checked my "health record", weighed me, requested a doctor would run a test on me, or anything of the sort. How is it their business?

The student had previously visited student health as a result of finding a breast lump. She was then called back in due to her low BMI being flagged up. Now I'm not saying its right that they used this as a 'one size fits all measurememt'.

However, there is a percentage of college students who do develop ED whilst attending. These are generally young adults who are away from family/peers who might be more aware of if the person has developed disordered behaviours. So the other side of the story is if the college hadn't flagged this concern up would they then have failed their duty of care?.

If weight is the criteria, how often are they failing at their "duty of care" by not threatening forced medical leave on overweight and obese students? After all far more people fall victim to disease and distress in relation to obesity in this nation than malnourishment and undernourishment.

Where is all this supposed concern for the fat students?

I can't post the link from my mobile. But actually Lincoln college in Pennsylvania seem to do just that. They impose a program where students with a BMI over 30 have to attend mandatory fitness sessions 3x a week. Which also isn't right. Although it does demonstrate its not just students classed as being on a low weight spectrum who are being singled out.

I think the main issue is they are implementing the BMI standard as the bar for 'health' as they see it.

hasta_la_vista_belly

BMI is such a flawed and stupid way to measure to begin with. This is just ridiculous.

Branstin

I'm surprised she wasn't smart enough to just keep adding weight to her pockets when she went for her weekly weigh-ins, because I've never been to a doctor's appointment where they forced you to take off clothes before stepping on their scale. (They've even weighed me with a coat and boots on at some places.)

She shouldn't have to add weights, simply because of the ridiculousness of the situation.

+1