Great news everyone: no more arguing over BMI

threewins
threewins Posts: 1,455 Member
edited August 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
Amazon has a fitness service called Halo which includes an ability to estimate your body fat using a smartphone app and analysis of the images.

This service costs money but I expect free apps to appear within 5 years. They'll analyse the images inside the phone and not need to send data to a data centre.

BMI will become less used, there'll be a slow progression to body fat percentage instead. Discussions about body builders with overweight or obese category BMI will no longer happen!

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    edited August 2020
    There is a problem with buying clothing on online stores with a lot of returns because of incorrect sizing. I think online stores are trying to solve this problem with this type of app not to calculate BMI’s. I might be wrong. If I can find the link I read a few days ago, I will post it.

    https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/07/fitting-apps-help-you-get-the-right-size-

    Here’s another. https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjrvYHPv8PrAhVFPa0GHQHUCdsYABACGgJwdg&sig=AOD64_0kSXt7dKp3SJTWbtjVdHZCNV8q9A&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwiSqPjOv8PrAhW6IDQIHRgmA0cQ0Qx6BAgPEAE
  • davepirat
    davepirat Posts: 12 Member
    Apart from what everyone else has said, I wonder how accurate the results of an app estimating bf% from pictures are going to be.
    I actually recently looked at the study in which the FFMI was invented and one part of their data was bodyfat estimates based on pictures for Mr. America winners back from the 40s (as data of people with extremely high amounts of muscle without using steroids). The guy who did the estimates had decades of experience in measuring bodyfat and they still said that this method has an obvious margin of error.
  • gcminton
    gcminton Posts: 170 Member
    I wonder if this would work any better than the existing websites with pictures you can look at to help you estimate your BF%. It sounds like it'd be just as reliable.
  • anacline
    anacline Posts: 13 Member
    "General Practitioners", what all of you are talking about calling "doctors" don't even care about body fat percentage when you've had it done by a professional clinic using a submersion scale, which is the most accurate measure.

    I had that done as part of a study when I was 135 lbs and was measured at 14% body fat. I brought this to a GP, in College Station Texas, to see if they thought my feeling lightheaded, going blind, and fainting randomly could be due to low body fat. She didn't want to hear it, didn't care I was having these random spells of dizziness, blindness, and occasional fainting. No Fs were given. Told me going blind and fainting randomly is normal. In the end I tried to get argumentative saying I could be a danger to people on the road if I faint while driving, and I didn't have these problems when I was 160 lbs maybe I should go back to that weight so I don't risk other people's lives and she just angrily said. "Be fat if you want to be fat, I don't care!"

    I don't want to be fat, I don't want to be skinny. I want what's best for my health and GPs these days are unwilling to help patients with that. 4 other GPs at College Station Texas also were along the same lines of useless. I got depressed and gained over 100 lbs in 4 years. Stopped fainting at least so I could safely drive to interviews and work, which makes 100 lbs of fat more useful than a doctor to me.

    This app will be better than a GP, 100%. Don't even bring those lazy arrogant idiots into this.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    There is a problem with buying clothing on online stores with a lot of returns because of incorrect sizing. I think online stores are trying to solve this problem with this type of app not to calculate BMI’s. I might be wrong. If I can find the link I read a few days ago, I will post it.

    https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/07/fitting-apps-help-you-get-the-right-size-

    Here’s another. https://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjrvYHPv8PrAhVFPa0GHQHUCdsYABACGgJwdg&sig=AOD64_0kSXt7dKp3SJTWbtjVdHZCNV8q9A&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwiSqPjOv8PrAhW6IDQIHRgmA0cQ0Qx6BAgPEAE

    Ugh, I hate buying clothes on line. (The fitting rooms of many stores near me are currently closed due to the coronavirus.)

    I recently bought a tankini top in three sizes. The cups were too big in the larger sizes and the band and rest of it too small in the smallest size. Maybe I could have made the middle size work, but the season is almost over and who knows what size I will be next year, so they all went back.

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