How much value does your BMI actually have?

Rouxenator

Rouxenator

Dank meme lord
Joined
Oct 31, 2007
Messages
46,376
Reaction score
22,389
Location
Stellenbosch
So I read somewhere that someone said they were quite skinny being 1.78m and only weighing 88kg. I am 187cm and you can see a bit of fat if I go anything above 83kg. Currently my BMI is 24.3 and my ideal weight would be sub 80kg. That is border line on overweight so I am nor sure if this whole BMI thing is anything to go by. I have a low fat, low carb, high alcohol diet and my libido is more or less non existent.
 
BMI is not very useful because it uses the square of your height. Considering that we are 3 dimensional creatures, not 2 dimensional, this means that as height gets bigger, your BMI will over estimate how overweight you are. Think about someone 20cm tall than you - they aren't simply you stretched out, they will also have wider shoulders, longer arms etc, all of which will increase their weight. This is why BMI is not very accurate for tall people.

There have been attempts to make a replacement for BMI, but for some reason, none of them have caught on, despite being more accurate. I guess BMI is easy to calculate and does give you some indication - ie if your BMI is 35, chances are you are overweight, no matter how tall you are.
 
yea BMI is a bunch of nonsense. you could get 2 guys with the same height and weight, where one could be a strong athlete with low body fat, while the other could be a fat slob.

BMI uses your total Mass in the equation, and ignores ratio of fat/muscle/bone mass etc. So its very much a rough guideline and more than likely fairly accurate based on the average person in a population.
 
Throw BMI out the window :)
Rugby players, body builders and the likes are considered overweight/obese.
Body fat percentages from skinfold tests are way more accurate.
We use this cool software at work where electrodes are placed on the body and impulses are sent to the electrodes.The software then uses an equation based on the time it takes the impulses to travel, and with your height, weight, gender, and race and gives you your body fat %, muscles mass, fat mass, body water % and lean to fat ratio
 
At the height of his bodybuilding career, Arnold Schwarzenegger had a BMI of 33.

According to the noted obesity specialist Robert Lustig, the most accurate metabolic syndrome risk measurement that you can do at home is your waist-to-hip ratio. A waist-to-hip ratio above 1 for men, and above 0.85 for women, correlates with insulin resistance.
 
@Roux - the alcohol will kill you before your BMI of 24.3, so that's okay!

BMI definitely does have a couple of things going for it:
(a) There's a vast wealth of good research on health, BMI, and obesity (derived from BMI).
(b) Most people are aware of BMI, and are easily able to determine their own weight and height. This offers easy self-assessment.

The reality is that for 90% of people it is a useful measure. If you're a body-builder or muscular athlete there's a good chance you will be very aware that BMI doesn't apply to you. Said body-builders should relax about BMI and klap some gym boet.
 
Anybody that is even remotely healthy and active should not use the BMI in my opinion.
People still often call me skinny but if I gain another 2kg I would be overweight acording to the BMI.


That said your heart and other organs still has to work harder with the extra weight even if its muscle.
 
Last edited:
And it's very scary that Discovery uses BMI to determine how healthy you are. According to them at my height of 1,76m I should weigh less than 72kg.
 
BMI and the bathroom scale is useless for anything more than a ball-park indication and not taking the above-mentioned factors into consideration. A tape measure and calliper is a much better and more accurate indication of whether or not you're a fatty.

Edit: BMI = "Baie Min Inligting"
 
Last edited:
srothman said:
A tape measure and calliper is a much better and more accurate indication of whether or not your a fatty.
Click to expand...

If you stand on a talking bathroom scale and it goes "One at a time please", chances are that you are a fatty.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X