BMI whats your opinion??

At some point, even the waist-to-height ratio becomes a more of a genetic issue than a health marker, especially in people who are several inches shorter or taller than average. And the belly button level is not everyone's natural waist. I think we should all just acknowledge the fact that health is personal, and using these cookie-cutter methods to determine who is healthy and who isn't causes more harm than good.

I work in the P&C area of insurance myself, so I understand the actuarial concepts, but if my doctor says I'm healthy, then I don't see any reason why my insurance company's actuaries should be able to arbitrarily suggest that I am not.

We in the actuarial field (I'm on the P&C side, but I've spoken with those on the health side) understand that weight and BMI numbers are very misleading. That's why they are going to be switching to a new measure of health which is your Waist to Height ratio. The reason is that a BMI number may become irrelevant is when dealing with those that lift weights and carry a decent amount of muscle on their frame.
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This looks very useful

From wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waist-to-height_ratio), Barbie has a WHR of 0.25. But I don't think that's ideal!

At some point, even the waist-to-height ratio becomes a more of a genetic issue than a health marker, especially in people who are several inches shorter or taller than average. And the belly button level is not everyone's natural waist. I think we should all just acknowledge the fact that health is personal, and using these cookie-cutter methods to determine who is healthy and who isn't causes more harm than good.

I work in the P&C area of insurance myself, so I understand the actuarial concepts, but if my doctor says I'm healthy, then I don't see any reason why my insurance company's actuaries should be able to arbitrarily suggest that I am not.

JQ, I agree with you. BMI, or other metrics such as Waist to Height ratios are not the end all be all to determining health. I was just pointing out, that as a starting point, the BMI measurement that is currently used is not reliable and that the waist to height ratio is a better STARTING tool to measuring health. You made an excellent point. I certainly did not want to imply that the waist to height ratio should be the only measurement of health. The OP's question was whether the BMI measurement is a good starting point for measuring health. You and I agree that it isn't.