What Is The BMI?
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The BMI (“Body Mass Index”) is a widely used, but sometimes misunderstood measurement of what a healthy body weight is. Here is an explanation, a BMI calculator and how to use the result correctly.
BMI Explained
Especially in bodybuilding circles I have often encountered the notion that “BMI is useless”, but that is an incorrect generalization. For over- and underweight persons it provides a fair estimate of their body weight being healthy or not:
Calculating It
To try it out yourself, simply key your stats into this BMI calculator:
BMI Shortcomings Revisited
As hinted in the video, for very tall, very short or very musular people the BMI formula doesn’t work very well. It is designed to be broad and apply to the most common circumstances, much like S, M or L cloth sizes are designed to cover (literally) the majority of people. If you are a muscular person, your are better advised to use a body fat caliper and if you are very tall or short, measuring your waist circumference may give you a better assessment.
But, as said, if the BMI puts you in the “obese” category and you can’t see your feet when you stand up, it honestly is pointing you in the right direction. The same goes for the underweight end of things: if the BMI tells you your body weight is too low and your hip bones stick out, you likely weigh less than is healthy.
Picture courtesy of Dani Lurie.
6 Comments
My column on 10 reasons why people incorrectly feel the BMI is wrong and one time when they are correct is my most read and argued column 🙂
http://calorielab.com/news/2010/03/05/the-top-10-reasons-why-people-incorrectly-think-the-bmi-is-wrong-and-one-time-when-they-are-correct/
You put it much better than I did! 🙂
I don’t know about that, but thank you. EC, you really have a wonderful website! There is so much excellent information here! I wondered about oil-pulling the other day, and surprise, now I’m off to read about it here 🙂
Ahem, BMI is /NOT/ a measurement of what a healthy body weight is!!
Period, full stop.
It /IS/ a statistical tool based on height and weight averages from the 1850’s!
It was designed as a statistical tool only and never ment to be a measure of what is and is not healthy and created at a time where nearly everyone ont he planet was severaly underfed and malnurished. Using the BMI to decide what is and is not a healthy weight is not only foolish but dangerously stupid.
You should probably re-read this post.
Yes, I can’t add more than what I already wrote under “Shortcomings Revisited”.