New BMI

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Replies

  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    This one added 1.3 to my BMI which means I could go down to 87 pounds and still be a healthy weight. No way would I look healthy at that weight when 100 pounds has me on the skinny looking side of healthy already.
  • newheavensearth
    newheavensearth Posts: 870 Member
    As if my body dysmorphia wasn't pinging enough, my BMI went up a full 2 pts and now it says 101 to 137 lbs. 137 lbs is struggle weight. Shoot I'm struggling now!
  • CTcutie
    CTcutie Posts: 649 Member
    5’4”... increased mine & went from overweight (old) to morbidly obese (new). I call bs :-1:
  • bellaesprita000
    bellaesprita000 Posts: 384 Member
    I also don't like the BMI. I've always had a large frame. My childhood doctor told me to measure my waist and keep it below 35inches. New BMI is 0.7 more than the standard. Morbidly obese either way.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    Seems like the "new" BMI calculators just fudge with the margins between categories but by-and-large most ratings are unaffected.

    The number in itself really doesn't matter. What matters is whether you are healthy or not. It has been well documented that people who are obese tend to have more health problems than those that don't.

    Problems often associated obesity include (but are not limited to) diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. There is no doubt that if you lose weight, you also reduce your risk for these and other potential health problems.

    If your BMI rating is in the over-weight or obese categories, it's a warning that you are at risk for these and other health problems and that you should take steps to assess and address any such problems that exist.

    Then again, just because your BMI rating is in the "healthy" category doesn't mean that you still aren't at risk for the same problems and, if you have a family history of such problems, it's also wise to take the steps to assess and address any such problems that may exist despite your "healthy" BMI rating.

    It really is just a number after all.
  • estherdragonbat
    estherdragonbat Posts: 5,283 Member
    Oh, I know. It's probably similar psychology to the difference between weighing 200 lbs and 199 is the same as 202 and 201. But somehow, it feels more significant. I've gone from Class III obesity (45 BMI) to overweight (29.9) in eleven months. To then be shoved back over the line into Class I obesity by the new scale is annoying. Even though it's about a .8 difference. Like if this had been posted while I was still in obesity or if I were down to 29.1, it wouldn't bug me. But because it puts me into a different category, it bugs me.

    Ah well. My goal weight is healthy by both calculations.
  • ALG775
    ALG775 Posts: 247 Member
    Here is a link to some explanation behind the new formula:
    https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/bmi.html

    Basically, it was a mathematician who argued that people don't "scale" up in a linear fashion. He believes that BMI is just a number- but maybe this formula is more accurate.

    I agree with many posters on MFP who share that BMI is more of a number to look at the general population- and that we shouldn't get too hung up on it. (I just recently learned that until 1988, the overweight category started at 27. Then they lowered it to 24.9)

    However, I have found that my maintenance weight seems to put me around 25.4/25.6 on the old BMI scale, puts me at 24.8 on the new scale- and like the poster above- where there really is no difference between 201 and 202 vs 199 and 200- I do take some pleasure in being "normal".
  • svel713
    svel713 Posts: 141 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I'd like to see how it correlates to health outcomes before passing judgement. It drops me .3 which is nice, but I'm skeptical, particularly since it doesn't differentiate between men and women, who have different sized bones.

    It puts me at a healthy BMI (18.8) where old BMI makes me underweight (18.1).

    My doctor told me I'm super healthy, so I'm going to definitely side with new BMI.
  • MissyCHF
    MissyCHF Posts: 337 Member
    Mine is 0.7 more on the new.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    fiddletime wrote: »
    I'm short and the new one added 0.8 to my BMI.

    Me, too. Went up .7 Still healthy. I feel good. So ... meh.
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    Huh. Drops me 1.2 and moves me from obese to overweight.

    TBH, I kinda think this is about right for me. I know I'm teetering on that break, but I don't think I'm obese anymore.

    Congrats on the milestone! :smiley:
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Down by .1 for me. What makes a bigger difference is the .5 inch variation in height depending on who measured me!
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    ALG775 wrote: »
    Have you heard about the new BMI scale? It is specifically for very short and very tall people.
    http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calculators/new-bmi/
    I like it-as the weight I seemed to have settles with so far is 24.6 on the new BMI and 25.8 on the old BMI!

    I'm not too concerned about BMI, but thought it was interesting.

    The new one does seem to be more consistent with what we observe among short and tall people, but keep in mind that the old BMI has a significant amount of research supporting it while the new BMI has little to none.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I'm 5'8" and mine went down by 0.2
  • JaydedMiss
    JaydedMiss Posts: 4,286 Member
    edited October 2017
    does BMI have nothing to do with gender? Never knew that xD

    standard -22.5
    new- 23.1

    it made me fatter :( lol
  • maggibailey
    maggibailey Posts: 289 Member
    I'm 5'10 and mine went from 22.7 to 22.1.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    JaydedMiss wrote: »
    does BMI have nothing to do with gender? Never knew that xD

    standard -22.5
    new- 23.1

    it made me fatter :( lol

    Yet another fault of it - no.

    Not sure if this thread or another.
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

    Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus

    1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.

    The BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by a Belgian named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was a mathematician, not a physician. He produced the formula to give a quick and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population to assist the government in allocating resources. In other words, it is a 200-year-old hack.

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