Don't let the BMI get ya down...focus on BF%

I wanted to write a post today on BMI, and the dangers of focusing too much on the magic "normal" numbers. I will also copy this over to my blog. I wanted to start with a personal story. First, I am in the Army, an Officer in the Army, so obviously being heavy is looked down upon quite a bit. Unfortunately, I have always been one of the heavy guys. At leat twice a year we take a PT test, which is always an easy pass, and we also do a Body fat test, which I have always been a few percentage under what is allowed. The Army has a certain height/weight ratio scale which is closely related to BMI in determining if you need to be "taped," a process wherein your abdomen and neck is taped three times, averaged, computed in with your height and age, and translates into a body fat percentage (it is highly inaccurate, but it is the way the Army does it).

When I was younger, in my teens, I computed on a national level in Nordic Skiing, a highly aerobic sport, and I was in incredibe shape. But, I do believe I abused my body in those years with over training, and really going to the extremes in order to be succesfull and competitive, in fact many of the individuals who I once raced against were in the last two olympics. As my final ski season ended, and I made the decision to go to a college that did not have a ski team, I made a huge decision that eliminated an enormous part of my life, the physical fitness part of it. Without the extreme training, and simply being lazy after years of hardcore working out, I gained weight, and thus began my continous battle with cyclic weight gain and loss. When ski season ended my Senior year of highschool I weighed about 170 pounds, shredded from head to toe without an ounce of fat. By the time I went on to college I had already blown up to 220 pounds. The odd thing was, I looked normal. Unless I was to take my shirt off you wouldnt really notice that I was a bit heavy and not really toned. I could stay up with the "in shape" crowd during our physical fitness workouts and really blended in. But I knew I was heavy, I knew my fat percentage had substancially increased, and according to the BMI I was "Obese."

My sophmore year of college I made the decision to get back to what the charts said was "in normal range" for my BMI. Based on my current weight of 220, my age of 19, and my height of 70" I was obese and my BMI was 32. In order to be in normal range with a BMI of about 22-24 I would need to weight 167 lbs and not an ounce more, in fact I set my goal weight at 160, that equated to a total of 60 pounds, no easy task to say the least. I went back to the basics and began implementing training and diet regimes that had been ingrained into my head in earlier years. In two weeks of intense dieting, supplementation, and working out my weight was already down into the 190's. It took another month and a half to get down into the 180's. I was working out no less than two hours every day, and often 4 hours at least three times per week. Additionally, I was taking many supplements to include protein, creatine, ephedrine (everyone was taking it back then), and some others, I also put myself on a super low calorie diet and aimed to burn at least twice as many calories as I was taking in. My one luxury was a Three musketeers on twice a week, and I didnt diet on Saturdays (I was in college I had to get my party on at sometime). By July I was down to 168 pounds and I was also at a point where people became seriously worried about my apperance. I was often asked if I was sick, my mother was extremely concerned, my friends said I looked like I had an eating disorder. I was happy though, for the first time ever I was able to weigh in and not be taped by the Army, I came in three pounds under what the maximum cut off is before being tapped. Additionally, I was running two miles in just under 12 minutes, and I was gymnist strong in the arms. I was in incredible shape to say the least. For the first time in my adult life I had a six pack, my cheek bones stuck way out and all seemed great. The funny thing was that according to the BMI I was still "marginally overweight." I was disgruntled to say the least, I couldnt believe the chart could be so flawed. I decided to get my body fat percentage done professionally, at that time it was done professionally with calipers. I actually had my Dr. do it and the results were a bit startling. My body fat percentage was barely 3%. I had gone to D.C. for the fourth of July that year and a picture was snapped of me sitting on a curb kind of twisted looking to the right. Every single rib showed through my sides, my face looked scary thin, and I just didnt look "healthy" even know I was fitter (at least by Army and BMI standards) than ever. 3% body fat is not a healthy percentage, elite athletes are generally told to maintain between 5-9% and the average fit male is at about 12-14%. I could not sustain a 3% body fat, and if I did eventually parts of my body would begin to degrade, it is simple fact. I was STILL OVERWEIGHT according to the silly BMI.

As the next couple of years went by I slowly put weight back on, until I graduated at 195 pounds, which was a great weight for me. According to the BMI I was overweight, but come one really? Five years and a couple deployments later I had gained a substancial amount of weight, in fact I was weighing in at 272 pounds. I was taking some very serious supplements, and while I was still passing the PT test, squatting nearly 650 pounds, and benching over 350, I looked very very fat, alot of it was water retention and simple bloat. I was tapped and identified for being over weight. The paperwork cited that I was 94 pounds over the acceptable army weight and 7% over on body fat. I actually thought it was a bit humorous because if I had lost 10% of my weight and it was all fat, I would still weigh in the 240's. I did what I had to do and got back down to 220. For the last three years I have bounced between the 220's and 240's, which according to the BMI is morbidly obese. I have decided to get back down to 200 because it is time for a permanent change and no more bouncing up and down. I almost fell into the "Army weight standard" and BMI trap again, but even at my current age I would have to reduce to 178 pounds, a weight that I am pretty sure would be unhealthy for my body type.

So what is the point of the story? The BMI was developed years ago by a Dr. that thought he could simplify body types and weight ranges into an easy to understand scale, in fact just the opposite has happened. I have no hard research but I would have to guess that at least 50% of the population is like me and simply can not fall into that scale without serious muscle atrophy and very dangerous weight loss tactics. So next time you punch your numbers into that BMI calculator take it with a grain of salt, it means nothing. Get yourself a device that will measure body fat (not the cheap innaccurate scales), even better get hydro tested (where they drop you in a bucket of water and measure the displacement to determine fat percentage) and capture your true fat percentage. Women should aim for about 25% body fat and men should aim for 15-17% (which is acutally pretty fit). That is the only true test of obesity!!