Is BMI an accurate way to know how much I should weigh?

245678

Replies

  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    I agree with all of that, it is not useless, it's probably useful for 90% of the population. And there are a lot of questions, for exemple, what is the percentage of the population who lift weights or do resistance training on a regular basis?
  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    What is very far out of standard BMI range? If we're talking about a bmi of 27 versus a bmi of 25, that's a difference of 15lbs. It is quite significant don't you think?

  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,926 Member
    No I don't.

  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    Is a bmi of 29 very far out of the healthy range? We're talking about a difference of 25lbs, about what a man can gain in muscle mass with a year of training.
  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    nonachalke wrote: »
    I looked up my BMI last night and it says I’m overweight, so obviously I’m freaking out. But is it accurate? I don’t want to just lose weight, I want to get toned and strong, I like muscle on me, but how do I know how much I should weigh?!

    For almost everybody, yes it is accurate -
    Unless you have have a really high muscle percentage, meaning elite body builder high, or you are some other sort of outlier

    I will have to quote you, because even an experienced lifter who's healthy at a bmi of 30 is not elite bodybuilder status. I guess i'm a little bit confused by your choice of words.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    edited December 2020
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    I agree with all of that, it is not useless, it's probably useful for 90% of the population. And there are a lot of questions, for exemple, what is the percentage of the population who lift weights or do resistance training on a regular basis?

    A recent study reported that 8.9 percent of Americans had done some kind of weight lifting in a typical day (this seems high to be, but what do I know?). The number of people who are doing it at a level to drive their BMI into the overweight range even though their body fat is at a healthy level is not recorded, but it's going to be much, much less than that. In contrast, 2/3s of Americans are in the overweight or obese range. We're not dealing with a nation of Dwayne Johnsons being falsely diagnosed with obesity. We're talking about a whole bunch of overweight people. I don't have the stats for Canada, but I am not aware of any evidence showing it's an issue there either.

    I think there's an assumption built into that idea (of lots of people being overweight per BMI but muscular, so at a good weight) that many people belong toward the upper end of the normal range to start with, before adding unusual amounts of muscle. I'm unconvinced, especially if we're talking about women.

    *Some* people are at a near-ideal weight per body fat %, but at overweight BMI? Sure. *Lots* of people? I don't think so.

    I'd have to add around 20 pounds of muscle to accomplish that, and I'm not at zero muscle now, or terribly delicate of build skeletally. It's not gonna happen, even if I were working hard for it.

    My scepticism is probably amplified by people I've seen make the claim in real life, I admit.

    People can choose to be the weight they prefer. Stats suggest being a bit into the overweight BMI zone is not a terrible health risk, besides.

    To the bolded: Probably self-reported. 😉😆
  • azalea4175
    azalea4175 Posts: 290 Member
    edited December 2020
    what if you have large dense bones and dense tissue? i continually have issues with MRI's, etc. because my tissue is "dense" (their word, not mine) and my wrist bone is over 8" in size. I'm built like my short stocky Italian grandfather. I don't believe the typical BMI chart would be accurate. How else do we measure bodyfat?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    azalea4175 wrote: »
    what if you have large dense bones and dense tissue? i continually have issues with MRI's, etc. because my tissue is "dense" (their word, not mine) and my wrist bone is over 8" in size. I'm built like my short stocky Italian grandfather. I don't believe the typical BMI chart would be accurate. How else do we measure bodyfat?

    BMI is not assessing body fat at all. You'd still want to use the traditional tools (calipers, scanners, etc) to understand your body fat.