Saw Something on The Doctors. What's Your Thought?

mamabear272

The other day they were talking about BMI and other indicators of health. Dr. Travis was saying that BMI is not the best indicator of health. You can have a person who appears to be the picture of health (thin, appearing to be athletic, etc) but their numbers are off the chart as far as cholesterol, BP, sugar, etc. Their BMI may be in the "healthy" range but they're not really healthy. I can tell you that I agree with this. My BMI is not good at all (terrible in fact) but my other numbers are better than perfect! My BP is usually around 110/70 and I don't remember the exact numbers but my cholesterol and sugar are perfect. I have a friend who is thin. She's probably 5'7" and I'd guess she weighs 130 lbs. She appears healthy but she's on cholesterol medication, she eats terribly and NEVER gets any exercise. I eat healthy (for the most part), exercise about 4 times a week and my numbers are perfect. How is it that she's considered more healthy than I am ONLY because of weight? Don't get me wrong, I know that carrying this extra weight is not good for me (which is why I'm working on it) but it's not the only indicator of health!

What are your thoughts on this?

Lyra89

BMI is a good starting point, but it by no means represents your health! My friend is a rugby player and is in his final year studying nutrition & exercise science...he has a very low body fat percentage and is the healthiest person I know, yet he is OBESE according to the BMI system.

Go by your measurements, your body fat percentage, and how you feel

The scale & BMI are only helpful indicators to a point!

susannamarie

One of the reasons the medical people use BMI is because it's easy to objectively measure. You can walk in, get your weight and height measured, and walk out.

It's a lot harder to measure diet/exercise as these would have to rely on self-reporting which is notoriously unreliable.

Does that mean that it's perfect? No.

Livingbalanced

Totally agree - I'm 5'4 and about 180 lbs - "obese" according to the BMI but I just had a physical done and the doctor said I'm a healthy young woman! He didn't even mention weight at all.

The BMI is an OLD tool used and may give you a very gray idea of where to head toward regarding weight but it is by no means THE tool to use for determining health! Good critical thinking!

SuffolkSally

Hmmm I set my goal weight to get to a healthy MBI, then I did some more research and reading, to discover that a healthy weight for me is yet another 15 lb, and that's without all the fitness work etc... all of which feels a bit too daunting, so I'm going to stick with my original goal and see how I feel when I get there! There is a site which compares some of the main recognised calculatrs so you can get an average as a more realistic guide than BMI alone, but I don't remember the name of it, sorry!

And of course people with tons of muscle mass can't use the BMI as a guide anyway...

tigersword

BMI is meaningless. It's intended for large population studies, and has absolutely no bearing on individuals, as it doesn't take body composition into account at all. It was never meant to be used for individuals.