cdjs77 Member

Would it be cheaper to give everyone that walks into a doctor's office a DXA scan? No. This formula is meant to identify those who are at risk for obesity, they could then get a DXA scan to confirm, but it would be a waste of money to have DXA scans for a, for example, 175 cm, 57 kg, highly-active woman. In order to figure…

This^. It's meant to estimate who is actually at an unhealthy BF%, not necessarily what your BF% is. This measurement showed fewer "false negative" cases of obesity, meaning fewer people who were identified as healthy when they were actually obese. Also, the statistic is designed to minimize outliers while still be…

I'm from Germany and our database here is pretty well established now. A few years ago it was less so, but now I find it has most everything I scan. It also has entries for most of the chain bakeries/delis/etc., and I have had no problem entering things I've found in a lot of other Euro countries, so I would imagine it is…

Hello Neighbor! (I'm in Germany :) ) I'm mostly using this to maintain and monitor fitness now, but a couple years ago I came here to lost about 8 kg going from 65 to 57 kg (I'm 175 cm). I maintain now at about 57-58 kg, and use the site to try to monitor my eating habits for health and performance, (I'm a bit of a sugar…

Do you actually know anything about hypothyroidism? Because most of this is wrong. Yes, a lot of weight gain from hypothyroidism comes from water weight, but your thyroid is responsible for regulating various bodily processes, when it is underactive many of these processes slow down. This is why many of the symptoms…

I am the same. OP, I actually use this to my advantage. Since I bike a lot for work, there are some days where I end the day with a 1000+ kcal deficit and I'm just not hungry enough to eat it all back. I bank those unused calories for days when I haven't done much exercise but want to eat more, by, say, leaving a deficit…

I think this is also a good answer and maybe also why I am so cautious to throw it out all together. For most new people here it is a good starting point for looking further into their health. Of course it doesn't work alone, but I think the best response to finding out your BMI is over-or underweight, is to use it as a…

Yes, it would be a much more accurate to take into account activity level (over time, obviously, since being extremely active for a week won't make you an athlete), but the underlying distribution these websites use is for the average population, since that is the original sample used to calculate BMI. If we could create…

Also to add more examples of the change in underlying population: the BMI range for healthy according to the WHO is different for Asians, with the cutoff for obesity at 27 instead of 30, again because they tend to have a higher BF% for a certain BMI.

I agree that I think this is a point where BMI has been misapplied, it's not meant to estimate body fat percentage, per se. Statisticians hate point estimates because they are almost never accurate. What it is meant to do is estimate whether someone is under- or overfat based on their height and weight. Basically they take…

Maybe you misunderstood what I meant: BMI is useful...as an initial assessment, it is not useful for much else, nor was it intended to be. We use it as an initial assessment because other tests are costly and/or time consuming. Why do a costly DEXA scan of moderately active 25 year-old who is 180 cm and 70 kg? (Keep in…

Sorry, English isn't my native language so perhaps the language in my post was confusing. Yes, I think caliper measurements done by a "professional" are probably more accurate at assessing BF% than BMI (but I also don't know whether this is true, I have never looked up the study of accuracy of calipers). BMI, itself, the…

I don't think anyone is arguing anything other than that. I certainly wouldn't, as that's not what BMI was intended for other than as an initial assessment. However, most people in these forums don't provide us with the results of their full workup at the their last doctor's visit so all we have to make an assessment are…

If by measurements you mean caliper measurements done by someone who knows what they are doing? Then probably, but measurements themselves aren't particularly accurate. I also think you and I have a different definition of what it means to be accurate. Individual BMI isn't meant to be a point estimate of someone's body fat…

I don't think that thread is the hill to die on. Regardless of the error rate involved with BMI, it's probably pretty accurate in predicting whether or not one is underweight if they are highly active. A BMI of 18.5 for a very active cyclist is likely underweight and will probably negatively affect performance (and I say…

I'm a female who is 5'9" and 125 lbs. Your goal weight is on the verge of being underweight, even as a female with a rather small frame who has been this weight for the most of my life, I will admit that I am on the verge of looking too thin. I am also a cyclist, I even work part-time as a bike courier, and I have found…

This graphic isn't actually all that useful except for trying to look shocking. How many sample points are there? There is so much overlap in the middle it's hard to tell if the people misidentified by BMI are 50% of the sample or 10%. Also, BMI is useful for exactly what it was intended for: making predictions about…

Ask and ye shall receive! :p These types of taxes are called Pigouvian taxes which are taxes on goods that cause negative externalities. Basically, if someone buys a good that has some negative effect on others, the usually only pay for the good itself, which gives them enjoyment, but causes downsides for others who are…

I don't think it's jealousy outright, per se. I have been thinking about this lately because of an exchange I recently read on Facebook. A friend of mine has been working on losing weight recently and posted that he was proud to have finally made it out of the obese category for BMI. Another woman posted that he shouldn't…

This is one of the better answers I've seen here. However, people usually misinterpret what is meant when we say a statistical measure is meant for "populations." All statistical measures are meant to determine something about a population, but that doesn't mean they can't or aren't designed to assess risks on an…

Agreed. I think a lot of people miss the point of studies like these. The question they are asking is not "Does CICO not matter if I exercise?," but rather "At what point do your body's hunger signals stop compensating for the added activity?" For most people, a mild to moderate increase in activity will also lead to a…

This is the main reason. The farther forward in time you go, the less accurate predictions get, much like the weather report, stock predictions, etc. The easiest example of this would be something like an average temperature. The closer you are to the time you are predicting, the less the actual result will vary from your…

I'm a grad student in Statistics and Quantitative Economics with a concentration on Deep Learning, so I would like to answer, but I'm not really sure what you are asking. Are you saying why do they conduct year-long studies to confirm hypotheses versus running the numbers through a computer? I don't see how a computer…

What do you mean by slow? In general, weight loss is a slow process, but yes hypothyroid can make it a tad bit slower. Once your thyroid hormones are in check it should be a bit easier, but 75 mg is not a very high dose, so it doesn't sound like your thyroid is too out of check. I also have hypothyroid, and I did lose a…