Do you think you're healthy because your BMI is normal?

A thread on why I think Body Mass Index is a ridiculous marker

BMI is a measurement of a person's leanness based on their height and weight. It is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared.

It was devised in the 1830s. 100 years later, it was adopted by insurers and some researchers studying obesity

Your height & weight only tells you half the story

The irony of the BMI misclassifications is that it “actually misses more than half of people with excess body fat”

Your body weight is mainly made up of

- Muscles & Organs
- Body fat
- Water
- Bone

The problem comes when a person has a lot of body fat & no muscle mass and is still classified as normal.

He might be severely obese but BMI will classify him as normal and they’ll go about thinking everything is well and good until one fine day he’s diagnosed as diabetic

The distribution of excess body fat makes a big difference to health. Those with lots of abdominal fat are prone to developing insulin resistance, high blood pressure, diabetes, premature heart disease etc.

So how do you check body fat?

Well, there are a couple of ways

- Skinfold caliper
- Bioelectric impedance analysis
- Hydrostatic weighing
- DEXA Scan

Last 3 of them requires you to visit the lab & can cost upwards of $100

A cheaper alternative is the Skinfold Caliper method. You need to buy a caliper. Here's one I've used

https://amzn.to/30CQS9J 

It works great & will tell you approximately how much body fat you have

Most importantly you can measure diff. parts. If the pinch measures higher at hip/beltline area, you carry a higher risk of heart attacks & stroke

Here's a little cheaper one: https://amzn.to/3fQIEBl 

My point of this thread was to make you realize why you should not rely on BMI

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