Does everyone still use the bmi scale??
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OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
Eight years ago my college used BMI to determine what grad robe size people needed if they didn't know. I made the mistake of putting in my weight, and height into my grad robe application form instead of just making a guess what size I needed. They never asked for a waist circumf. This is what size they decided my BMI score made me.
Yes that bump in the sleeve is my hand. It was like half a foot beyond my fingers. It's okay to laugh, I did.8 -
aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.8 -
aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
Eight years ago my college used BMI to determine what grad robe size people needed if they didn't know. I made the mistake of putting in my weight, and height into my grad robe application form instead of just making a guess what size I needed. They never asked for a waist circumf. This is what size they decided my BMI score made me.
Yes that bump in the sleeve is my hand. It was like half a foot beyond my fingers. It's okay to laugh, I did.
Your robe confuses me! Being fat doesn't make your arms longer. Trust me, I should know... so your height should have accurately determined the length of your sleeves, regardless of your waist circumference. Blame this one on people who don't understand how to make clothing, not BMI!13 -
aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.
There's a study out there somewhere which determined that something like 12% of men and 5% of women were "obese" according to BMI without actually being obese according to bodyfat percentage. I'm saying this from memory so it may be off. Does anyone else remember the study or have a link to it?1 -
rheddmobile wrote: »aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.
There's a study out there somewhere which determined that something like 12% of men and 5% of women were "obese" according to BMI without actually being obese according to bodyfat percentage. I'm saying this from memory so it may be off. Does anyone else remember the study or have a link to it?
So in other words roughly 88% to 95% of the time BMI was correct, right?3 -
mburgess458 wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.
There's a study out there somewhere which determined that something like 12% of men and 5% of women were "obese" according to BMI without actually being obese according to bodyfat percentage. I'm saying this from memory so it may be off. Does anyone else remember the study or have a link to it?
So in other words roughly 88% to 95% of the time BMI was correct, right?
Nope, as the reverse error can be made, obese by BF% but overweight or "normal" on the BMI Chart
so two types of errors, those that are in an overweight category, but not overweight, or those in Normal but should be classified as overweight. I would assume the later is even mover common ("skinny fat") unhealthy BF% but "normal" scale weight7 -
mburgess458 wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.
There's a study out there somewhere which determined that something like 12% of men and 5% of women were "obese" according to BMI without actually being obese according to bodyfat percentage. I'm saying this from memory so it may be off. Does anyone else remember the study or have a link to it?
So in other words roughly 88% to 95% of the time BMI was correct, right?
No...it's far more rare for someone to be obese per BMI but still lean. It's not particularly rare for a male who works out regularly to be slightly overweight per BMI, particularly if they're at a healthy BF% but not super lean.
There's a big difference between being lean and a few Lbs overweight per BMI and obese and lean per BMI.1 -
rheddmobile wrote: »
Your robe confuses me! Being fat doesn't make your arms longer. Trust me, I should know... so your height should have accurately determined the length of your sleeves, regardless of your waist circumference. Blame this one on people who don't understand how to make clothing, not BMI!
I actually made clothing for a living for like ten years. Never said it did made your arms longer! What I said is that it was hanging half a foot beyond my fingers. It's kinda like when kids play dress up, the shoulder seam hangs way below where it's supposed to and their tiny arms are swimming in sleeve. Same principle. What happens is you have to account for the extra shoulder space larger people need when grading a pattern up. When the shoulders of a garment are made to encompass someone much larger than you, sleeves tend to hang lower because the shoulder seam is wider than your shoulders.
It's the BMI sizing they were using, and it was made for someone much, much larger than I was at the time; there's oodles of cloth around the shoulder, arms, and the neck opening is huge. The BMI is inaccurate because it fails to consider muscle mass, and I tend to have a lot from running/cycling et ctr, because that was the way I got around for a decade and a half.2 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »mburgess458 wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.
There's a study out there somewhere which determined that something like 12% of men and 5% of women were "obese" according to BMI without actually being obese according to bodyfat percentage. I'm saying this from memory so it may be off. Does anyone else remember the study or have a link to it?
So in other words roughly 88% to 95% of the time BMI was correct, right?
No...it's far more rare for someone to be obese per BMI but still lean. It's not particularly rare for a male who works out regularly to be slightly overweight per BMI, particularly if they're at a healthy BF% but not super lean.
There's a big difference between being lean and a few Lbs overweight per BMI and obese and lean per BMI.cwolfman13 wrote: »mburgess458 wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »aresvallis wrote: »OP, nobody should use BMI for weight loss goals. It's been decried for years now as inaccurate.
BMI isn't inaccurate, it's just not as hard and fast as people think it to be. Though unscientifically, I would argue that more of us conform to the BMI range than do not conform. A surprising number of people claim to be exceptions to the norm and it's likely that they're not all correct.
There's a study out there somewhere which determined that something like 12% of men and 5% of women were "obese" according to BMI without actually being obese according to bodyfat percentage. I'm saying this from memory so it may be off. Does anyone else remember the study or have a link to it?
So in other words roughly 88% to 95% of the time BMI was correct, right?
No...it's far more rare for someone to be obese per BMI but still lean. It's not particularly rare for a male who works out regularly to be slightly overweight per BMI, particularly if they're at a healthy BF% but not super lean.
There's a big difference between being lean and a few Lbs overweight per BMI and obese and lean per BMI.
Yes - which is what I said before - young muscular sporty men - not body builders or elite sportsman, just regular young muscular sporty men - can have BMI's of slightly over the official range and still be healthy and not over fat despite being officially over weight.
I suspect the 12% of men quoted in post upthread reflects this.
Although I agree, such men are generally "overweight" according to a BMI of around 27 - the BMI isnt high enough to be obese.
They are slightly over the official range not 5+ points over (30 being official start of obese)
Up to each of us, or our doctors or whoever is assessing our health status, to use common sense about whether this is likely to apply to us
As I said before - unlikely to apply to me as a middle aged non-muscular non-sporty woman - so a BMI of 23 is healthy for me.
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aresvallis wrote: »rheddmobile wrote: »
Your robe confuses me! Being fat doesn't make your arms longer. Trust me, I should know... so your height should have accurately determined the length of your sleeves, regardless of your waist circumference. Blame this one on people who don't understand how to make clothing, not BMI!
I actually made clothing for a living for like ten years. Never said it did made your arms longer! What I said is that it was hanging half a foot beyond my fingers. It's kinda like when kids play dress up, the shoulder seam hangs way below where it's supposed to and their tiny arms are swimming in sleeve. Same principle. What happens is you have to account for the extra shoulder space larger people need when grading a pattern up. When the shoulders of a garment are made to encompass someone much larger than you, sleeves tend to hang lower because the shoulder seam is wider than your shoulders.
It's the BMI sizing they were using, and it was made for someone much, much larger than I was at the time; there's oodles of cloth around the shoulder, arms, and the neck opening is huge. The BMI is inaccurate because it fails to consider muscle mass, and I tend to have a lot from running/cycling et ctr, because that was the way I got around for a decade and a half.
That doesn't make any sense. Look at the chart below. Just using it, a person at any height from 5'0" to 6'4" can have a BMI between 19 and 26. They can't use BMI to size clothes unless they also have height.
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I use BMI as a guideline. BMI compares height and weight only. I prefer to use body tape measurements and weight. When I work out a lot, my height and weight may stay the same but I can lose 3 inches off my hips. I tried body fat calipers but it is really hard to use them by myself.0
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