Do you think BMI is a hoax?

Not a Hoax, just a mis-used outdated tool.

For people like me (most definitely not an athlete), I think it's quite accurate.

I think part of the problem is that we're so used to seeing overweight and obese people that it's become the new normal. I am overweight according to my BMI and yet I get told over and over that I don't look overweight. I think I DO look overweight. I'm a size 12 - that's not the size I am supposed to be. But it's like people don't see overweight as being overweight, but instead as "normal". And they think obese is overweight, and it's only when people get up into higher levels of obesity that people actually start seeing it.

For athletes, it's a different story. The vast majority of us are not athletes, though.

I don't think its a hoax, but certainly not ideal for weight/measurement. Mike Tyson in his prime (5'10", 215lbs) according to BMI would be grossly obese, when we all know he was nowhere near obese.

Similar to bodyfat % scales. I believe the only "true" ways to measure bodyfat% are calipers when used by a professional and water displacement tanks. But those bodyfat scales can be used to accurately measure fat loss (before and after)

So you take a city with 10,000 people in it. You classify them all based on BMI. Then you split them up into groups according to their classification. The majority of people in each group will fit their BMI classification.

According to the bmi the majority of the western society is overweight and i am not sure that is wrong otherwise mfp would not be as popular as it is. Every time this discussion comes up here people chime in with how such and such is classed obese and how it is outdated. In reality though it is not as outdated as you'd like to think. We as a population group are now less fit then ever before (it was developed before the wide spread use of cars) thus it might even grossly underestimate the problem because it assumes a certain 'average' muscle/ body fat ratio.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Correlation_between_BMI_and_Percent_Body_Fat_for_Men_in_NCHS'_NHANES_1994_Data.PNG


Don't you see men who are fit with a high bmi but low bf% seem to be the exception. Although this chart is from the 90s. I wonder how much it's changed since then.

Inappropriate use of the word hoax. It isn't Area 51, it's a sometimes inaccurate measure of health.

but wasn't it a measure created by aliens coming to earth to harvest human meat for their fast food operations????

**** my bad bro, thanks for correcting me! :flowerforyou: You're totally right, the whole organ harvesting thing had slipped my mind when I posted that.

Hoax? No. But massively oversold and being inappropriately used now? You bet. There are MFP members here who have come on here saying they need to "crash" diet to get below some arbitrary BMI number or their health insurance bill at work will go up. I can envision a scenario where someone will not get a job simply because they don't meet the numbers on the chart, ,regardless of whether they are truly overweight or obese. There is not a single competitive bodybuilder now or in the past who wouldn't be considered obese. At his prime, Arnold Schwarzenegger (6'4") weighed 260 which put his BMI at 31.6. You wanna tell "The Terminator" that he was obese? Go ahead. Be my guess. This week is the Mr. Olympia competition in Las Vegas. Anyone want to get out there and tell all those competitors, with body fat numbers at 3-5% (or less) that THEY are obese?

Take my partner and I. I'm about an inch shorter than he is and about 5-10 pounds heavier. He has a few beers every night and has the beer belly to show it (not bad but noticeable when nekkid, which is how I like him. :blushing: ) My last calculation put my bf% at about 17%. He's in size 34 pants, I'm in size 28. Yet he has a BMI of about 23 (and normal) where I have a BMI in the low 25's (or overweight). You tell that to any of our friends and they'll laugh you out of here. I could lose 40 pounds and still be considered "normal" weight. As it is, I can't count the number of people who tell me to stop losing because I am getting way too thin. And I think I am too.

So to use the BMI in appropriately to "punish" people who really are in good shape, as some employers are starting to do, is simply wrong in my estimation. And in that sense, it is a hoax. At least the implementation is fraudulent.

Inappropriate use of the word hoax. It isn't Area 51, it's a sometimes inaccurate measure of health.

And using Hoax for Area 51 is also inappropriate use of the word. Area 51 is real, it's an American Military base used often for top secret new military developments in aviation. (Such as the U2 and the Oxcart.) People often thought there were UFO's but it was usually the U2 or the Oxcart they were seeing, not aliens. http://www.nbcnews.com/science/area-51-its-purpose-declassified-no-ufos-lots-u-2-6C10931555 has some more info.

"the U-2 flight tests created an "unexpected side effect — a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects." The authors said the spy planes flew at altitudes in excess of 60,000 feet, which was not thought possible at the time. Thus, air traffic controllers began receiving flurries of UFO reports from pilots who saw the planes above them."

Really fascinating stuff. (And often terrifying when you read up on the nuclear bomb testing going on at the Nevada test site and the like... )

Measure your body fat percentage, if it's over 22-25% probably would be "healthier" to keep dieting.

That being said, I'm nowhere close to that point and may never be, though I hope to be. You've accomplished a lot on your weight loss journey and should be proud. You are miles healthier now than you were at the beginning of your journey. As far as gaining more confidence, and not be embarassed around people, any man/woman who didn't want to get to know you because you were 220 is so shallow as to not be worth your time. Lots of women like men with a little meat on them. Apparently we are comfier to cuddle with. That's my experience anyway.