BMI (Body Mass Index)
TannerBoyl
Posts: 55 Member
I've never really placed much importance on my BMI (Body Mass Index). One of my coworkers believes the BMI is infallible. My understanding is that it is a general scale that gives an idea to the average person how their weight measures with their height. I understand that it doesn't take into account people with extreme muscle mass or other exceptions.
As I get leaner, I have been checking to see where I fall on the scale.
I went from Obese (at 230lbs) to the middle of Overweight (at 202lbs) at my height of 6'0". According to the scale, I will be at a Healthy weight under 184.4lbs. Even though I have a large skeletal frame, I can believe that I would be at an optimal weight around that point.
My question is: How much (if any) importance do you place on your BMI (Body Mass Index)?
As I get leaner, I have been checking to see where I fall on the scale.
I went from Obese (at 230lbs) to the middle of Overweight (at 202lbs) at my height of 6'0". According to the scale, I will be at a Healthy weight under 184.4lbs. Even though I have a large skeletal frame, I can believe that I would be at an optimal weight around that point.
My question is: How much (if any) importance do you place on your BMI (Body Mass Index)?
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Replies
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I am not a huge believer in it...my BMI is very high due to my weight and height but I am mostly muscle mass...so.0
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I used BMI as my initial goal. I wanted to get to 154, which was the top of the healthy range for my height. I'm not in an outlier population--I'm not extremely muscular or above average in height--so I felt like it was a good general goal for me since I really had no idea what my ultimate goal would be. And since hitting that goal, I've been working on a "I'll know it when I get there" basis as far as my final goal goes.
At 6', you are a bit above average height (I'm basing that on the chart on this page) so it's possible that BMI is not even a good general range finder for you. My husband is 6'2" and the top number on his "healthy" BMI range was what he was at in high school and in tip top shape. It's not realistic for him to comfortable maintain that at this point.0 -
BMI is a great starting point for the vast majority. Of course there are some people who are outliers on it, but like 98% of the time if it says you are obese then you have some weight to lose, i think.0
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It's a general guideline, an objective measure, like calories or weight. It doesn't tell the whole story. Body fat percentage is better but it's a lot harder to calculate accurately, and not everyone has the tools. Every doctor's office has a weigh scale and a ruler on the wall.
I'm personally looking forward to achieving the "overweight" category, only ten pounds away.0 -
Everybody on weight loss and bodybuilding websites tells themselves that it is not accurate because they don't want to accept those numbers. As you said, it is an accurate guideline for the average person. Most people are in denial about the fact that they are, in fact, quite average.
Seriously, every user of this website cannot be an outlier, despite everyone seeming to believe that they are.0 -
Everybody on weight loss and bodybuilding websites tells themselves that it is not accurate because they don't want to accept those numbers. As you said, it is an accurate guideline for the average person. Most people are in denial about the fact that they are, in fact, quite average.
Seriously, every user of this website cannot be an outlier, despite everyone seeming to believe that they are.
Well when my Doctor (md) looked it over...and then at me and then said...no that is not accurate. I believed the Doctor but thanks for that oppressive post.0 -
I put quite a lot of importance on it myself. I got down to 4lbs above the lowest healthy weight for my height according to BMI, and as much as I wanted to lose more weight I wouldn't (and won't) let myself go into the underweight category. No matter how often I hear people saying BMI is rubbish, I just can't bring myself to go below what it says is healthy. Especially since most people are usually talking about being overweight according to BMI being rubbish rather than being underweight, though I've heard people say it's useless for saying what's underweight, too.0
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Not much, when I'm a size 4 and overweight by BMI standards, I tend to disregard it. I think bodyfat percentage and waist measurements are a better method for assessing whether you are overweight or if you may have weight-related health risks.
*edited to add, I think waist-to-height ratio was recently shown to be a better predictor for health risks over BMI anyway. I think BMI will stop being the "standard" indicator soon.0 -
@jgnatca, it looks like you've already accomplished so much! Best of luck on the next 10lbs!
@Zedeff, I fell into that category for years! It wasn't until I started shedding weight that I came to the conclusion that I am not one of the outliers. I set my initial goal as 200lbs, but as I near that goal I realize that I still have a way to go before I'm near an optimal weight. After I hit my goal, I'm going to readjust it to be in the Healthy range for my BMI.0 -
TannerBoyl wrote: »I've never really placed much importance on my BMI (Body Mass Index). One of my coworkers believes the BMI is infallible. My understanding is that it is a general scale that gives an idea to the average person how their weight measures with their height. I understand that it doesn't take into account people with extreme muscle mass or other exceptions.
As I get leaner, I have been checking to see where I fall on the scale.
I went from Obese (at 230lbs) to the middle of Overweight (at 202lbs) at my height of 6'0". According to the scale, I will be at a Healthy weight under 184.4lbs. Even though I have a large skeletal frame, I can believe that I would be at an optimal weight around that point.
My question is: How much (if any) importance do you place on your BMI (Body Mass Index)?
I put as much importance on it as my company does - they offer extra health insurance subsidies if certain markers are in a "healthy" range. But in reality I think it's a poor indicator of health or fitness.0 -
Everybody on weight loss and bodybuilding websites tells themselves that it is not accurate because they don't want to accept those numbers. As you said, it is an accurate guideline for the average person. Most people are in denial about the fact that they are, in fact, quite average.
Seriously, every user of this website cannot be an outlier, despite everyone seeming to believe that they are.
Well when my Doctor (md) looked it over...and then at me and then said...no that is not accurate. I believed the Doctor but thanks for that oppressive post.
First off, if a dose of reality is your definition of "oppression" then you must live a terribly unhappy existence. You're only a victim if you choose to be.
Second, your MD knows you better than anyone and probably offers you good advice, so take it. YOUR advice however is not the same as the advice for everyone else, so YOUR scenario has no reflection at all on the utility of BMI as a tool. I am a doctor (MD) myself and I respect your physicians assessment, but his assessment of you does not apply to the MFP community as a whole.
Third, for any of the broad community of doubters on this website, you can review the BMI evidence yourself rather than take others' opinions as gospel. Just plug the phrases BMI, validation, and/or predictor along with "ncbi" (which references PubMed, a publications database) into Google and read what comes up. Here's a small sample of some study conclusions:
Campillo et al, 2006: "BMI is a reliable parameter to detect malnutrition"
Pietrobelli et al, 1998: "Our results support the use of BMI as a 'fatness' measure"
Mei et al, 2002: "...the performance of BMI-for-age is better than that of Rohrer-index-for-age [an alternate assessment tool] in predicting underweight and overweight..."
Chang et al, 2013: In a study specifically looking at people believed to be inaccurately assessed by BMI (elderly patients with abnormally high or low body fat percentages): "...BMI was in better agreement with fat percentage with a smaller mean difference from fat percentage..." and "...BMI may be a better index for older men" when compared against a different index (BAI).
Lemacks et al, 2012: "Pearson's correlation analysis revealed a strong association between DXA adiposity and BMI" in middle aged women.
Geliebter et al, 2013: "...BMI correlated significantly with percentage fat from bioimpedence analysis and air displacement plethysmography [and] DXA. BMI was also the single best predictor of percentage fat...." in severely obese women (again, people claim that the scale doesn't work at extremes).
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@TannerBoyl I am in the same boat. Yeah, I'd love it if my current weight of 216 was healthy, but it's simply not. It won't be healthy when I'm at 200, 190, 180, or even 170, no matter how much I want it to be or how much I decide not to believe in the medical evidence.
I have a choice: I can try to get healthy, or I can try to make excuses. I choose the former.0 -
I check my body fat percentage too, not just my BMI, but I'm not an extreme athlete and I exercise only moderately, so I know I don't have a ton of muscle mass.
At 5'4", I'm definitely in the height range where it's a reasonably good predictor, but I'm small-framed so the top end of a "healthy" weight according to BMI is way too high for me (when I was 145 lb, my highest weight ever, I definitely, definitely looked overweight even though I was healthy according to BMI.) I look and feel best near the bottom of "healthy" due to my frame, although I suppose that would change if I were heavily muscled.0 -
My BMI is 25 but my body fat is 17, i personally prefer BF measurement0
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I think the takeaway is that BMI is an indicator, not the only indicator.
If BMI places you in a specific category and you disagree with it, then look to other indicators like body fat percentage, hip to waist ratio etc
For most, BMI is a fairly accurate indicator of a range for which most people will be medically healthy.0 -
BMI is kind of useless as a measurement tool. It's antiquated, and based on the sum of a population. You can have strength athletes that are super lean, but because of their high weight to height ratio vs a "normal" person, they would be in the obese category most likely. Contrary, somebody with extremely little lean body mass might squeak by in the healthy category depending on height.
BF has always seemed like a much better, objective metric to me. It's based on you alone.0 -
I check my body fat percentage too, not just my BMI, but I'm not an extreme athlete and I exercise only moderately, so I know I don't have a ton of muscle mass.
At 5'4", I'm definitely in the height range where it's a reasonably good predictor, but I'm small-framed so the top end of a "healthy" weight according to BMI is way too high for me (when I was 145 lb, my highest weight ever, I definitely, definitely looked overweight even though I was healthy according to BMI.) I look and feel best near the bottom of "healthy" due to my frame, although I suppose that would change if I were heavily muscled.
I'm similar to you. I'm 5'4" as well with a small frame and the high end of my BMI is definitely too high, but the low end is too low. So I guess I am one of the few that fit comfortably in the middle of my idea BMI. I know this because I have BEEN within my ideal weight range. I still looked a little pudgy because I didn't have enough muscle to appear toned. That's what I think people forget. You can be at the top of your ideal weight and be more fit and healthier than at the bottom of your ideal weight with no muscle.0 -
I was so so so excited yesterday when I was finally able to say that I have a BMI of 24.9 (from 32.3 seven months ago). I even started to make a thread about it!
Buuuuuuut I'm still 24 pounds above my goal weight (which I don't place too much importance on either, as I'm comparing myself to me 12 years ago) and can't say I'm thrilled to look at any part of my body in the mirror. I'm packing too much weight for my small frame.0 -
The real question, it seems to me, is how well BMI correlates with health outcomes. And there is some evidence that significantly underweight and significantly obese BMI numbers are correlated with poor health, but that within those bounds, it is not. See, for example, nature.com/ijo/journal/v31/n1/full/0803365a.html0
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BMI works for me.
At the moment my BMI is 26. I am 167cm and weight 72.5kg and yes, I am slightly chubby.0 -
BMI is a good starting point. Also, there is a more research based around BMI than the other things one might use, so it is more useful in terms of matching yourself up with various studies. Obviously, it is going to be off for people who are on the extremes, but for 90% of the population, it works fairly well.0
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TimothyFish wrote: »BMI is a good starting point. Also, there is a more research based around BMI than the other things one might use, so it is more useful in terms of matching yourself up with various studies. Obviously, it is going to be off for people who are on the extremes, but for 90% of the population, it works fairly well.
I have also read the BMI is pretty realistic for 80-90% of the population.0
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