BMI -- Body Mass Index

[bunnita]

I was playing around with this BMI thing and with the pounds I lost with this flu I am finally, by a pound, down to what they consider 'normal'.  I'm not srue I agree with their clasifications but it's a general thing.  My doctor was talking about it the last time I was in so I thought I'd check it out

Comments

Food for sore tummy

[omniverousread]

Sweetie

[jaerik]

BMI is a toughie because it's been perverted to use to judge things it was never meant to.

Originally, BMI was not supposed to be a judge of obesity. It wasn't supposed to judge if you were fat or skinny. It was meant to be a medical gauge on someone's average propensity to be effected by health complications due to one's build.

It turns out that body fat percentage, which important for things like looks, is not all that great of a judge of someone's health risks, because due to varying genetics, people have naturally different body fat percentages. However it was discovered that the BMI formula, which does not take into account bodyfat but rather simply focuses on height and weight and assumes averages for other health characteristics, was indeed a very accurate determination on average for someone's risk of things like heart failure.

[bunnita]

Well now I'm not at risk, I think =) The doctor made a huge deal about it the last time I was in, but seeing as must people in America are overweight I see why they did.