I honestly never cared about BMI or my ideal weight. Because I had convinced myself that I was going to be huge the rest of my life. I never. Bought into the BS excuse of being "big boned" or Ny of those others ridiculous excuses people spew from their mouths. But, when my blood pressure shot up and was threatening my life I knew something had to be done So, what is BMI anyway? Well, according to the CDC, "Body Mass Index (BMI) is a number calculated from a person's weight and height. BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems."
I think the term "fatness" is insulating but it is what it is. However, something I did learn is there is a difference between body-fat percentage and BMI. I did some reading and found the Self.com article "Body-Fat Percentage or BMI: Which Is More Accurate For You?" Very helpful. It says, "Those digits can deceive, making you feel pudgy when you're not or giving you false slim-security.Use BMI or body-fat percentage (BFP) to suss out your true fatness. We've got the skinny on the way that's right for you......
Reality check: Body-fat percentage
Who it's for? Athletes or fitness fanatics who might be dubbed overweight by BMI because their muscle mass makes them naturally heavier. BFP is also a wake-up call for "skinny fat" women, whose BMI is fine but who, because their muscle tone is zilch, could have dangerously high body fat, which can increase the risk for diabetes, heart disease and other serious ailments. (Not either? Anyone can use it to gauge her body fat.)
How it works. The easiest way to get an accurate BFP reading is a skin-fold test. Calipers (they look like long prongs) measure thickness near your hip and at your thigh and triceps.Where to get it Many gyms offer the test gratis to members, or you can ask your doc to test you.
What your number means:
14-20%Oh, yeah! You're athlete-level fit.
21-24%Sweet. You're in great shape.
25-31%OK, but your health risks may rise; up your strength training.
32+%You're actually obese (even though you may not look it).
Reality check: Body-mass index
Who it's for? Workout novices who need to lose a lot of weight in order to get fit, says Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise. As you shed major pounds, you'll see your BMI go down--an encouraging sign that you're on track. BMI also helps average-weight, average-muscle-tone folks get a snapshot of their health. (To know your actual body fat, you need to use BFP.) But if you're just looking to drop a size, skip this calculator. Replacing a few pounds of fat with muscle won't always change BMI, and you may think you're not progressing when you are, McCall notes.How it works The formula takes how tall you are and how many pounds you carry, then estimates if you're at a healthy weight.
What your number means:
18.4 or less Underweight. You actually need a little fat to be healthy.
18.5-24.9 Normal weight.You're in the zone.
25.0-29.9 Overweight. Health risks rise in this range.
30+ Obese. Time for a major body transformation!"
So, here is this number used by insurance companies and other businesses to gauge how healthy we are supposed to be. However, it's not accurate....well, that's helpful!
NPR.org has a post titled "Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus" from July 04, 2009. "Americans keep putting on the pounds — at least according to a report released this week from the Trust for America's Health. The study found that nearly two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. But you may want to take those findings — and your next meal — with a grain of salt, because they're based on a calculation called the body mass index, or BMI. As the Weekend Edition math guy, I spoke to Scott Simon and told him the body mass index fails on 10 grounds:
1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.The BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by a Belgian named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was a mathematician, not a physician. He produced the formula to give a quick and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population to assist the government in allocating resources. In other words, it is a 200-year-old hack.
2. It is scientifically nonsensical.There is no physiological reason to square a person's height (Quetelet had to square the height to get a formula that matched the overall data. If you can't fix the data, rig the formula!). Moreover, it ignores waist size, which is a clear indicator of obesity level.
3. It is physiologically wrong.It makes no allowance for the relative proportions of bone, muscle and fat in the body. But bone is denser than muscle and twice as dense as fat, so a person with strong bones, good muscle tone and low fat will have a high BMI. Thus, athletes and fit, health-conscious movie stars who work out a lot tend to find themselves classified as overweight or even obese.
4. It gets the logic wrong.The CDC says on its Web site that "the BMI is a reliable indicator of body fatness for people." This is a fundamental error of logic. For example, if I tell you my birthday present is a bicycle, you can conclude that my present has wheels. That's correct logic. But it does not work the other way round. If I tell you my birthday present has wheels, you cannot conclude I got a bicycle. I could have received a car. Because of how Quetelet came up with it, if a person is fat or obese, he or she will have a high BMI. But as with my birthday present, it doesn't work the other way round. A high BMI does not mean an individual is even overweight, let alone obese. It could mean the person is fit and healthy, with very little fat.
5. It's bad statistics.Because the majority of people today (and in Quetelet's time) lead fairly sedentary lives and are not particularly active, the formula tacitly assumes low muscle mass and high relative fat content. It applies moderately well when applied to such people because it was formulated by focusing on them. But it gives exactly the wrong answer for a large and significant section of the population, namely the lean, fit and healthy. Quetelet is also the person who came up with the idea of "the average man." That's a useful concept, but if you try to apply it to any one person, you come up with the absurdity of a person with 2.4 children. Averages measure entire populations and often don't apply to individuals.
6. It is lying by scientific authority.Because the BMI is a single number between 1 and 100 (like a percentage) that comes from a mathematical formula, it carries an air of scientific authority. But it is mathematical snake oil.
7. It suggests there are distinct categories of underweight, ideal, overweight and obese, with sharp boundaries that hinge on a decimal place.That's total nonsense.
8. It makes the more cynical members of society suspect that the medical insurance industry lobbies for the continued use of the BMI to keep their profits high.Insurance companies sometimes charge higher premiums for people with a high BMI. Among such people are all those fit individuals with good bone and muscle and little fat, who will live long, healthy lives during which they will have to pay those greater premiums.
9. Continued reliance on the BMI means doctors don't feel the need to use one of the more scientifically sound methods that are available to measure obesity levels.Those alternatives cost a little bit more, but they give far more reliable results.
10. It embarrasses the U.S.It is embarrassing for one of the most scientifically, technologically and medicinally advanced nations in the world to base advice on how to prevent one of the leading causes of poor health and premature death (obesity) on a 200-year-old numerical hack developed by a mathematician who was not even an expert in what little was known about the human body back then."
MedicalNewsToday, com says "Waist-to-height ratio better than BMI. Dr Margaret Ashwell, an independent consultant and former science director of the British Nutrition Foundation, explained at the 19th Congress on Obesity in Lyon, France, May 2012, that waist-to-height ratio is a superior predictor than BMI7 of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.Dr. Ashwell said "Keeping your waist circumference to less than half your height can help increase life expectancy for every person in the world."Thus a 6ft-tall man should have a waist circumference of 36 inches or less, while a 5ft 4in woman's waist should not exceed 32 inches.The waist-to-height ratio should be considered as a screening tool, Ashwell added.Ashwell explained that BMI does not take into account the distribution of fat around the body. Abdominal fat affects organs like the kidney, liver and heart more severely than fat around the bottom or hips. Waist circumference gives an indication of abdominal fat levels.Dr. Ashwell and colleagues believe that the thought "keep your waist circumference to less half your height" is an easier one to hold on to that BMI." The article also says " An example of the biggest flaw in using BMI. Wrestler Steve Austin, at the height of his career weighed 124kg (252lbs). He was 6ft 2ins tall. His BMI at 32.4 would class him as obeseBody Mass Index' biggest flaw is that it does not take into account the person's body fat versus muscle (lean tissue) content.Muscle weighs more than fat (it is denser, a cubic inch of muscle weighs more than a cubic inch of fat). Therefore, BMI will inevitably class muscly, athletic people as fatter than they really are.A 6ft-tall Olympic 100 meter sprinter weighing 90kg (200lbs) may have the same BMI (26) as a couch potato of the same height and weight.A BMI calculation would class both of them as overweight.That calculation is probably right for the sedentary couch potato, but not for the athlete.The athlete's waist circumference, at 34ins, is well within "healthy weight" - if his height is 72 inches, his waist is less than half his height.However, the sedentary person's waist of 40 inches is more than half his height."
So, to be honest I really could care less about my BMI. I just want to be fit and healthy. Lord knows I already have an obession with the scale! Yet, numbers seem to drive a lot of people. Be it for good or bad reasons, we fixate on numbers and hate ourselves for not being able to achieve the results we think we need to hit.
I will leave you with this final article that caught my attention on HealthStatus.com, "Frame Size, How Much Does It Affect Your Weight?" Which says, " Sometimes when you research a question, poof your answer is clear, defined, lots of material out there. That”s how I like it. This question was like searching for the Holy Grail. Not much information, not any studies proving definitively anything. Here”s what I found.An average adult has 206 bones in their body. People can have different number of rib bones and bones in their hands and feet that make doctors average the number of bones in a skeleton. Bones themselves can have different densities. We know this from people who have thinning bones due to Osteoporosis.The interesting thing that is substantiated on this quest is heavy people with a BMI over 33 never get Osteoporosis. They have greater bone density. Bone density is increased when you do activities that put stress on the bone structure like weight lifting or in this case carrying around excess weight.So is there truth to the heavy weight, big bones, big frame? Not really. Bone weight depends on how much a person”s entire body weighs. Bones make up around 15% of a person”s total body weight. While people do have different frame size, most who weigh too much for their height do so because of excess body fat. Body builders are the exception. Remember muscle mass weighs more than fat and lean muscles make you look thinner (so if you have lots of muscles you may weigh more but look thinner).Most weight charts take into effect your frame size. Many weight charts have 10 pound increments in each frame size; small, medium, and large. That is a 30 pound swing for any given height, so if you look at the chart and say to yourself, “I’m big boned and should weigh more than that”, well, maybe 10-15 pounds. Being big-boned or small boned doesn’t justify a 20-25 pounds differential from a normal size person. If you are truly convinced you are not overweight just big boned. Buy a body fat scale. These scales can actually measure your fat percentage. But don't count on insurance companies changing your premiums; they strictly go by their charts. Remember to continue to treat your body with care so that it can help you to do all the things you enjoy."
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