Illustrated BMI categories

Apr 20, 2010 09:45

BMI (body mass index) was developed in the mid-1800's as a shorthand way to determine whether someone was in a healthy weight range. BMI does not factor in the bulk of your skeleton (big-boned vs. small-boned or framed) or your muscle vs. fat ratio ( Read more... )

science that is not scientific

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walking_random April 20 2010, 19:06:22 UTC
When I was in college it was actually a pretty dependable and accurate reading for athletes to use, too bad to hear it's changed for the worse in just a decade.

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khemlab April 20 2010, 19:16:52 UTC
I don't think it's changed at all. Maybe the athletes you are thinking of weren't overly tall, heavily muscled, or blessed with boobage? I also run a very full C - small D cup, but on the other hand have a pretty small bone structure (can easily touch my middle finger to my thumb around the largest part of my wrist, and my index finger to my thumb if I grasp tightly). On the other other hand, I don't have skinny legs - my quads and calves are of the curvy rather than slim type. On the other other other hand, I am slim and curvy through my torso, and my arms don't get heavily muscled.

My problem with BMI is it focuses on two things only: height and weight. There are so many other factors to one's overall body composition that should be factored in to deciding whether you need to slim down (and yes, I could stand to lose a few pounds, but I am not obese by any stretch of the imagination) - but BMI is used without modification by many doctors to make recommendations to their patients.

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walking_random April 23 2010, 02:38:28 UTC

I don't know about all athletes; but when I was in sports I got about 3-4 hours of exercise a day and at 5'9 my BMI was right were it should have been; I remember being surprised at its accuracy because I was skeptical about the whole thing to begin with.

...for reasons I cannot explain, this conversation is making me hungry. You found a good place for Chinese or Thai yet?

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