![]() The real value for BMI is that, when put into context with other health biomarkers (i.e., blood glucose, insulin, blood pressure, lipids, waist circumference), it can help inform the overall clinical picture and provide a better understanding of your health.įrom a public health or clinical research standpoint, BMI can be useful as a quick field measure for assessing health risk across large numbers of people with relatively minimal equipment (standard hospital scale and stadiometer for weight and height). So is body mass index useless? No, not necessarily. While their BMI values were technically “ normal,” their clinical values were poor (i.e., hypertension, hyperlipidemia, type 2 diabetes, etc). On the other hand, I’ve also seen people who were relatively thin but carried a lot of localised belly fat. In practice, I’ve seen plenty of people who were “ overweight” or even “ obese” by BMI standards but were regular exercisers who ate a healthy diet and were clinically very healthy. So you CAN carry a little bit of body fat and still be healthy on the inside. ![]() Or you might be normal weight, but if you’re short in stature, then BMI would likely yield a higher number.įor example, you might be a shorter, well-muscled person with an elevated BMI of 27. Technically you’re “ overweight” on the BMI scale, but your clinical values (cholesterol, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, etc) might still be normal. If you have an athletic build (i.e., lots of muscle), it may indicate a “false positive” by overestimating your health risk where none actually exists. One of the main limitations of BMI is that it does not take body composition into account (i.e., how much fat and muscle you have). How accurate is body mass index for predicting health risk?īody mass index is frequently criticised for not giving a well-rounded picture of health. BMI classificationsĬonsider the following classification table, but be sure to keep reading in order to put these numbers into context. The higher your BMI, the greater your theoretical risk of developing obesity and associated metabolic disease like diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood lipids (fats), and cardiovascular disease (heart disease or stroke). ![]()
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