An interesting read…
“For all its utility as a research tool, though, body mass index is “fairly useless when looking at the individual,” said Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa.
B.M.I. can’t tell, for instance, what percentage of a person’s weight is from their fat, muscle or bone. This explains why muscular athletes often have high B.M.I.s despite having little body fat“
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It falls into the standard medical research trap of looking at total averages instead of populations. I understand it’s simplicity, but there are other more accurate simple measures that can be done just as easily at home.
I’d say BMI has good general application on the public that can be easily measured and calculated. But for those with any reasonable amount of additional muscle mass, it becomes utterly worthless.
Anyone with muscle in the Marines had a failing BMI and had to be taped.
The biggest shame of BMI is that people tout it for it’s simplicity, when, especially for men, there’s a far, far simpler metric of health - waist size. You can be scrawny with a beer gut and fall within a ‘healthy’ BMI, and you can be jacked with a small waist and be considered obese. Obviously, for women it’s much more difficult with wide hips and stuff like that, but generally, low visceral fat means you’re good to go.
Well by definition my oldest boy is obese… the fat ass.
I am too by definition.
The numbers standards are insane… for me not to be considered overweight. I couldn’t weigh over 168lbs.
I recently moved from “Obese” to “Overweight”. People comment that my veins have veins. Now, I am not stage ripped or anything, but I do and most would consider me fit.
I have personally used BMI to swindle seniors and pregnant women out of their life savings on several occasions. So yes, scam.
I think BMI is pretty useful because many people think they are just carrying a little tub when in fact they are obese. I am also yet to run by someone who is overmuscled and then is confused by BMI and thinks there’s a pending heart attack - they just think BMI is crap and move on.
Obese bastard
I get what you mean, but the argument here is that BMI is an inaccurate method of determining obesity. That’s why simple waist size is the difference between big and strong and big and fat (though possibly also strong). Letting people know that they’re obese is important, for sure - but using a metric that is inaccurate means that those truly obese people can just as easily brush off a bad BMI, and just say they’re carrying muscle.
Again, that’s exactly the point - it’s used in healthcare a lot, so it’s not necessarily the overmuscled person who thinks that, it’s the healthcare professional - or even insurance provider - that thinks that.
No doubt the medical industry is going to have a horror story waiting for me but I would say that in most of cases BMI is going to be a harmless first measure.
In the other cases, the person with the high BMI but okay body calls bullshit and in the other cases it will get caught down the line. Like what is the response to a high BMI? Blood test and lose some weight. Probably not bad for nearly everyone. Nobody is going to end up doing insulin shots and taking beta blockers off a BMI score.
Would be funny to learn there’s a beta blockers scam running on BMI scores though 
You’ve got me looking at it your way now, haha. I guess I can’t really think back to anything disastrous coming off of an inaccurate BMI reading.
I’ll never forget at one of my physicals when a doctor told me I needed to lose 15lb to get myself to a “normal/healthy” weight. Mind you I was leaner than my current profile picture. I just looked at her and said “from where?!” Never saw that doc again. 
Good Call
Apparently my BMI is 33.4 “Obese Class 1” (i.e. “You must be a fat bastard, but we don’t think you will die immediately”).
I have been off every “average” chart since I was 2 years old.
It’s typical of a broken system. One of the guys at work is 6’2" with a year-round 6 pack and the medical specialist at our health fair told him to lose weight.
I guess I should have been dead years ago.
You must be about the same height as me, 5’8 ish.
My doc said to pay no mind to it. It’s on some of my medical stuff (intake/discharge records), but he doesn’t use it for anything. It’s more for the hospitals overall stats and records.
Poor kid. Carries all his fat in his tris, quads, etc. 
5’9 on my end…
Pretty much.
Same thing at my work… and same situation with a guy I know.
Is this just someone who owns a blood glucose meter, one of those handheld body fat testers and has access to YouTube?