BMI does not always apply to every body type
Suezyq47
Posts: 199 Member
I read a an article in the Calgary Herald that I thought would be nice to share. Hopeflly people do not stress too much about weight and BMI because you can weigh more and have a high BMI but not be overfat. Here it is:
The question sounds simple but is a complicated answer: How much should I weigh?
You may have heard that the best way to assess your proper weight is by looking at body-mass index (BMI), which correlates your height and weight into health ranges. While this is a starting place it is certainly not the end-all-be-all.
Here are two examples of clients in my practice that used BMI to assess how much they should weigh and the challenges that arose because of this.
Melanie, a 55-year-old menopausal woman had lost and gained the same 50 pounds over the years. She had high blood pressure and suffered from depression. At five-foot-four and 230 pounds, her BMI labelled her obese. This five-letter word was deflating. After years of trying to achieve a healthy BMI range of 108 to 145 pounds with no success, Melanie decided to let it go. Looking back at her history it became clear that even when she was eating and exercising almost perfectly she was never able to nudge lower than 170 pounds. Over time Melanie found peace with her weight and success-fully now maintains a weight of 175 to 185 pounds. Despite BMI still classifying her as obese, she has more fun, better flexibility with her food, lowered knee pain and has dropped her blood pressure.
At 16, Beth remembers feeling bigger than most girls in her class. At five-foot-six and 170 pounds she started dieting and exercising excessively. She got to 120 pounds by being severely bulimic. At 19, a well-intended health professional that didn't know the punishing regime Beth had been following for years, suggested that she was at a good weight because she fell within the healthy BMI range. Her psychologist and I had to work very hard to convince her that 120 pounds, although considered healthy by the BMI, was not healthy for her. As Beth recovered from her disorder and began to nourish her body with sufficient food and moderate activity, the scale normalized to the higher end of the BMI range. Her blood pressure and heart rate improved and her menstrual cycle reappeared. While happy that her physical health was restored, Beth still struggles with knowing that while some women at her height can be healthy at 115 pounds, in order to be healthy she needs to weigh almost 40 pounds more.
Dietitian Andrea Holwegner Health Stand Nutrition Consulting Inc. www.healthstandnutri-tion.com 403-262-3466 Twitter: @chocoholicRD
Three Steps to Achieving your Best Weight
It is not about the number on the scale
Focus on restoration of health and maximizing quality of life. Minimize a fixation on numbers on the scale as much as possible. Focus on increasing your energy levels, improving mood as well as increasing vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients. Also focus on reducing joint pain, less need for medication, better digestion, and healthier blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels and blood sugars.
It is not about calories in versus calories out
The diet industry would have you believe that you can weigh whatever you want if you simply eat less and exercise more. Your weight is a reflection of a complex list of factors above and beyond your food and activity factors. Also important are genetics, family history, gender, age, body composition, sleep habits, stress levels and more. Remember that some factors we can change while others are factors we have little control over.
It is not about giving up fun and flexibility
Weight management experts Dr. Arya Sharma and Dr. Yoni Freed-hoff suggest focusing on your best weight, which is defined as whatever weight you can achieve while living the healthiest lifestyle possible and still having fun and flexibility. At some point you will not be able to eat less, exercise more and still enjoy a great life. At that point you are trying to achieve a weight that is under where you should be. The words fun and flexibility are essential. Living fully is indeed about a mix of healthful and soulful choices.
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/relying+body+mass+index+problem+those+trying+lose+weight/7306589/story.html#ixzz285PnGF1x
The question sounds simple but is a complicated answer: How much should I weigh?
You may have heard that the best way to assess your proper weight is by looking at body-mass index (BMI), which correlates your height and weight into health ranges. While this is a starting place it is certainly not the end-all-be-all.
Here are two examples of clients in my practice that used BMI to assess how much they should weigh and the challenges that arose because of this.
Melanie, a 55-year-old menopausal woman had lost and gained the same 50 pounds over the years. She had high blood pressure and suffered from depression. At five-foot-four and 230 pounds, her BMI labelled her obese. This five-letter word was deflating. After years of trying to achieve a healthy BMI range of 108 to 145 pounds with no success, Melanie decided to let it go. Looking back at her history it became clear that even when she was eating and exercising almost perfectly she was never able to nudge lower than 170 pounds. Over time Melanie found peace with her weight and success-fully now maintains a weight of 175 to 185 pounds. Despite BMI still classifying her as obese, she has more fun, better flexibility with her food, lowered knee pain and has dropped her blood pressure.
At 16, Beth remembers feeling bigger than most girls in her class. At five-foot-six and 170 pounds she started dieting and exercising excessively. She got to 120 pounds by being severely bulimic. At 19, a well-intended health professional that didn't know the punishing regime Beth had been following for years, suggested that she was at a good weight because she fell within the healthy BMI range. Her psychologist and I had to work very hard to convince her that 120 pounds, although considered healthy by the BMI, was not healthy for her. As Beth recovered from her disorder and began to nourish her body with sufficient food and moderate activity, the scale normalized to the higher end of the BMI range. Her blood pressure and heart rate improved and her menstrual cycle reappeared. While happy that her physical health was restored, Beth still struggles with knowing that while some women at her height can be healthy at 115 pounds, in order to be healthy she needs to weigh almost 40 pounds more.
Dietitian Andrea Holwegner Health Stand Nutrition Consulting Inc. www.healthstandnutri-tion.com 403-262-3466 Twitter: @chocoholicRD
Three Steps to Achieving your Best Weight
It is not about the number on the scale
Focus on restoration of health and maximizing quality of life. Minimize a fixation on numbers on the scale as much as possible. Focus on increasing your energy levels, improving mood as well as increasing vitamins, minerals and other key nutrients. Also focus on reducing joint pain, less need for medication, better digestion, and healthier blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels and blood sugars.
It is not about calories in versus calories out
The diet industry would have you believe that you can weigh whatever you want if you simply eat less and exercise more. Your weight is a reflection of a complex list of factors above and beyond your food and activity factors. Also important are genetics, family history, gender, age, body composition, sleep habits, stress levels and more. Remember that some factors we can change while others are factors we have little control over.
It is not about giving up fun and flexibility
Weight management experts Dr. Arya Sharma and Dr. Yoni Freed-hoff suggest focusing on your best weight, which is defined as whatever weight you can achieve while living the healthiest lifestyle possible and still having fun and flexibility. At some point you will not be able to eat less, exercise more and still enjoy a great life. At that point you are trying to achieve a weight that is under where you should be. The words fun and flexibility are essential. Living fully is indeed about a mix of healthful and soulful choices.
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/relying+body+mass+index+problem+those+trying+lose+weight/7306589/story.html#ixzz285PnGF1x
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Replies
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not sure what the point is here - she's still obese but has given up ? As she weighs more than me I'm guessing her body fat isn't too low.Over time Melanie found peace with her weight and success-fully now maintains a weight of 175 to 185 pounds.0 -
The point is that she is still overweight but healthier and learing to accept herself even though she doesn't fit into the proper BMI category for her height and weight.
not sure what the point is here - she's still obese but has given up ? As she weighs more than me I'm guessing her body fat isn't too low.Over time Melanie found peace with her weight and success-fully now maintains a weight of 175 to 185 pounds.0 -
At 5'7", a "Healthy" BMI for me would be between something like 118 and 150lbs. I honestly feel like I would look like a skeleton at that weight. My goal is 170-175lbs, which is still considered overweight. When I reach my goal, I will reassess, but I honestly feel like I will look, feel, and actually be healthier at a higher weight range than where the BMI chart says I should be. It's not because I don't think I can reach 150. I just know my body composition. It is absolutely not about the number on the scale. It is about my fitness, health, and happiness level.0
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BMI is the most rediculous metric one can use to measure health.0
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Generally, I like what this has to say. It does seem odd that she settled at "obese", but I can absolutely see someone being comfortable at a weight that is considered "overweight." At 5'7" I look sickly at 120lbs (I believe that's the low end of "healthy" for my height.) I look and feel fabulous in the 150's which are just pounds away from overweight.0
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So the first lady is still overweight. Being overweight is, of course, healthier than obese, and accepting yourself should happen regardless of weight. But being normal weight is better than being overweight.
The second one, at 5'6" shot for the far-lowest end of the BMI and on top of that - did it an extremely unhealthy way. Now, she's at the high end of normal and healthier. Go figure...
Sounds like to me BMI is fine, how people use it is wrong.0 -
not sure the examples given were the best...but bmi should most definitely be taken with a pinch of salt...
"Although BMI gives us some idea of the health risk associated with being a certain weight for your height, it's just an approximate means of assessing body fat and risk to health. It doesn't allow for weight from muscle - for example if you're an athlete or very muscular you will have a high BMI even if you have a healthy level of body fat. It's also not accurate for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, the very young or very old, the extremes of the normal range of shape, nor does it allow for medical conditions which affect height or shape. "0 -
I'm measuring my health by my labs from the good ol' doc...and the part where my booty is just not where I want it to be.
My BMI hates me. Not obese anymore though what what!!! 0 -
TL;DR.
BMI is a useless metric. Focus on body composition, BF%0 -
Uh huh.
Tell my doctors to quit using it then.0 -
So the first lady is still overweight. Being overweight is, of course, healthier than obese, and accepting yourself should happen regardless of weight. But being normal weight is better than being overweight.
The second one, at 5'6" shot for the far-lowest end of the BMI and on top of that - did it an extremely unhealthy way. Now, she's at the high end of normal and healthier. Go figure...
Sounds like to me BMI is fine, how people use it is wrong.
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Many of the contenders for "Mr Universe" tip the scales at over 250 lbs. Their body fat is probably around 5 to 6 percent. By BMI standards they are considered "obese". In order for them to reach a healthy BMI they would have to lose a lot of muscle mass.
While these are extreme cases, and they used steroids to get to the point that they are at, many people do have higher than average amounts of muscle. BMI doesn't work for them.0 -
This paragraph is golden:
"Weight management experts Dr. Arya Sharma and Dr. Yoni Freed-hoff suggest focusing on your best weight, which is defined as whatever weight you can achieve while living the healthiest lifestyle possible and still having fun and flexibility. At some point you will not be able to eat less, exercise more and still enjoy a great life. At that point you are trying to achieve a weight that is under where you should be. The words fun and flexibility are essential. Living fully is indeed about a mix of healthful and soulful choices."0 -
I've got to say that I disagree with the point of this article -- maybe they found the wrong examples because it sounds like BMI was perfect for the 2nd girl (if she hadn't tried to get to the lowest possible healthy weight), and for the first example, other than the age -- that was me. But I didn't give up.
I've always had big, muscular legs and big (just not muscular) arms. I just assumed that I was one of the "big boned" girls and would never get anywhere near the "healthy" BMI, so I'd critize it, saying it was a useless measuring tool.
I'm now smack dab in the middle of healthy. Yes, it was hard work, but I've been maintaining within a 5lb +/- for a year & a half, so clearly my body is ok at this weight -- even if years ago, I'd never have believed that I'd be anywhere near "normal" BMI.
It's amazing how much weight we keep on because we've now gotten so used to big being the average, that the "average or normal" has grown. Now if they had used athletes as examples, that would make sense as the system doesn't account for muscle, but honestly, what portion of the population does that really affect?0 -
Mirrors rule. If you have a roll where you want it flat, that beats your BF%, BMI and fat fatalism combined.0
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not sure what the point is here - she's still obese but has given up ? As she weighs more than me I'm guessing her body fat isn't too low.Over time Melanie found peace with her weight and success-fully now maintains a weight of 175 to 185 pounds.
The point is that any weight loss for an obese or morbidly obese person is a success and will lead to some positive changes in their health status, such as reduced knee pain, lowered cholesterol or triglycerides, etc. It is recommended that a person who is obese or morbidly obese aim for a goal of 10-20% weight loss, as this will lead to many positive health outcomes. It is much better that they loss some than none at all.
Now, onto something you said that makes me shiver: "she's still obese but has given up..."
This goes back to is the cup half-full or half-empty. You see Melanie's cup as being half-empty, because you fail to see what she has gained. I see her cup half-full, because I see what she has gained and that she is happy with where she is at.
BMI is not perfect. It is not accurate for people who a large amount of muscle mass (weightlifters). Nor is it accurate for people with osteoporosis. Native Americans and black people have denser bones than Caucasians. How will they fair with a BMI scale? Would it be fair to tell a black woman that she is obese when the BMI scale cannot predict obesity accurately for black people. BMI is also inaccurate for Asians, because their bones are lighter than Caucasians. The same with people of Jewish ethnicity.
The BMI scale doesn't look at age, race, ethnicity, or physical condition when it spits out a number telling you that you are obese. It is just a tool to be used to determine if a person is at risk for certain obesity related diseases.
A waist-hip measurement should be done in conjunction with using a BMI scale. I know that everyone has seen people with those twigs for legs and arms, but they are tubby around the middle. They may have a BMI that is a bit above normal, but they are at risk for the same diseases as a person who is obese!
I personally do not go by the BMI scale or the waist-hip measurement, although I know my numbers for each. I am going by how I feel and what my body fat measurement is. To me, that is what is important. To Melanie, being able to enjoy life is important. I would rather be a trifle bit overweight and enjoying life than normal by an inaccurate BMI scale (I am part Native American) and totally unhappy because I can't enjoy food because I am always fighting not to gain weight. To me, it is best to find the weight that you can maintain than to have to fight with your weight all the time, even though it may mean I will fall in the overweight zone. That doesn't make me a failure, either.0 -
Sure, BMI doesn't apply to all people.
However, some people, to whom it should apply, say it doesn't apply to them and therefore don't strive to be healthy.0 -
I think that the two examples given could have been better but I do agree that it is not for everyone. BMI is a standardized measure that does not always work for everyone.
I am 5'3" and 162lbs according to the CDC BMI scale I am at the high end of overweight. I told myself when I started going for a healthier lifestyle I would look at my goals again when I reached 165. Before I had my children I ranged from 160-165 and ate whatever and whenever I wanted (That being said veggies are my favorite foods and I am not big on sweets). BMI says I should be between 104-141. My main concern when I started this new lifestyle was the 8 months or so that I weighed 135lbs which according to BMI is within my healthy range. I was sick constantly, I caught every cold and flu bug within a 20 mile radius and generally had no energy.
My decision..... If I never lose another pound I am happy with the scale. From here on out it is not about the numbers on the scale instead it is about my physical fitness. Can I run a 5k 3x a week? Do I have energy to keep up with my children? What is my strength like? Can I do 20 full pushups? Yes I still use the scale and yes, it is still in a downward trend but it is no longer about the numbers and what is an acceptable weight it is about answering and maintaining the answers to my previous questions.0 -
BMI is the most rediculous metric one can use to measure health.
^^ THIS. Use body fat % instead. According to the BMI chart I'm at 27 and extremely overweight even though my body fat % is under 15%.0 -
A few years ago I lost a considerable amount of weight. Went from 240 to 175. I am 5'4" tall. I had a personal trainer and I trained very hard to get there with heavy kettlebells. At 175 I was wearing a size 6, had quite a bit of muscle but I was still considered obese by BMI standards. They say the ideal weight for me would be 135-140 but I could not imagine losing another 40 pounds, I would be a skeleton!0
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It is hard for those of us trying to lose weight to hear that it might not be healthy for us to achieve our goals, so I understand why not everyone supports the premise of the article. Still I think it is important for us to all realize that thin doesn't equal healthy and overweight according to BMI doesn't mean unhealthy. I was watching an episode of the Doctors and they put a thin woman and one with an overweight BMI on a treadmill. They performed a series of tests to see their fitness levels and the overweight woman was the fittest and had better cholesterol and blood pressure etc then the thinner woman.
We all have to decide if being healthy or skinny is your goal, in some cases the two may not be one in the same.0 -
Uh huh.
Tell my doctors to quit using it then.
Many doctors blindly follow it. Its true! Plenty of people on this site have been told to lose weight at a very healthy body fat with a muscular frame.
Example, photo below. This guy is fat. RIGHT???? I mean his BMI says he is obese!
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BMI is the most rediculous metric one can use to measure health.
Amen.0 -
My goal weight is in the Overweight category. Once I get there, I will strive for an overall look. It's very possible I will stay overweight just as it is very possible I will lose more and be a normal weight. The BMI scales don't mean much to me. I am obese by BMI standards but I can do things with my body that most normal weight women cannot. It's not the end all be all.0
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So the first lady is still overweight. Being overweight is, of course, healthier than obese, and accepting yourself should happen regardless of weight. But being normal weight is better than being overweight.
The second one, at 5'6" shot for the far-lowest end of the BMI and on top of that - did it an extremely unhealthy way. Now, she's at the high end of normal and healthier. Go figure...
Sounds like to me BMI is fine, how people use it is wrong.
Haven't you seen the famous "BMI comparison" picture? With two people at the same heights and weights, but one has considerably LESS body fat. BMI is body MASS--it does not count if the mass is muscle or fat. One if obviously better than the other. Body fat % and measurement ratios are much more accurate at analyzing health and fitness--even doctors steer away from the BMI chart.0 -
My goal weight is in the Overweight category. Once I get there, I will strive for an overall look.
Now THIS is sound reasoning. +10 -
That's why I use BF% to measure myself. You may have an acceptable BMI, but if your BF% is over 25% (for men) or 32% (for women), you're still obese.
However, you could have a BMI of 30 and have a BF% of 10%, you'll be healthy at that weight.0 -
BMI was not designed for individual-use. It was designed to categorize populations. Using it to categorize individual people is not the correct use and a big part of why it really doesn't apply.0
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That's why I use BF% to measure myself. You may have an acceptable BMI, but if your BF% is over 25% (for men) or 32% (for women), you're still obese.
However, you could have a BMI of 30 and have a BF% of 10%, you'll be healthy at that weight.
BINGO.
BMI + BF% gives a much better picture than just BMI or just BF% alone.
P.S. WAY too many people use the argument that BMI doesn't suit every body type as an excuse to remain obese or overweight. Remember, the terms "obese" and "overweight" are medical terms and for most people, being categorized as "obese" also means that this person is at a much higher risk for certain types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and a mountain of other medical issues. Very few people who are categorized as "obese" have "non-obese" BF% also. That's an exception, not the norm.0 -
If ANY doctor blindly tells any patient to lose weight because his/her BMI says so but he/she is under 20% BF or under 30% for a female, they should be immediately and permanently be banned from practicing medicine. I mean that. They do not understand the human body.0
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