The Body Mass Index BMI of an individual is one of the common indicators of health today. It has been the preferred tool for measuring the overall health of an individual according to their body size. Even if many healthcare and wellness facilities use BMI for health assessment, it has been criticized for many other reasons. Let us find out whether BMI is actually a good measure of your health.
What is BMI?
Before diving into the credibility of BMI for health assessment, it is important to know the term and its history. BMI was developed by mathematician Lambert Quetelet in 1832 for estimating overweight and obese people in a specific population. The basic formula for measuring BMI is by dividing the individual’s weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters. However, the creator of BMI had stated that it could not serve any useful outcome in measuring an individual’s health as it provided an impression of the overall health of a population.
What Are the Criticisms for BMI?
The BMI scale offers an idea of whether you are obese, underweight, or have normal weight. Healthcare professionals using BMI as a tool for measuring your health can suggest lifestyle changes when your BMI doesn’t fall in the “normal” range. On the other hand, it is also important to reflect on the credibility of BMI. Does it offer an accurate estimate of how healthy you are? Here are some reasons to show the pitfalls of BMI.
- Focus on Weight and Height Only
The first setback with BMI is the fact that it does not account for other factors such as genetics, medical history, age, or lifestyle. In addition, the BMI scale never accounts for heart rate, inflammation levels, cholesterol levels, and blood sugar. Therefore, it is impossible to trust a ‘normal’ BMI as an indicator of good health.
- No Consideration for Fat Distribution
BMI does not consider the positions for storage of fat on the body. As a result, BMI can result in misclassification of an individual as unhealthy or at risk of chronic diseases. For example, people with the same BMI could have different levels of tolerance for health risks due to fat distribution.
- No Signs of Body Fat Percentage
Another critical downside with BMI refers to the lack of measurement of body fat percentage of BFP. It refers to the share of your body, which comprises fat tissue, in comparison to the total body mass. BMI does not account for the differences between muscle and fat. This is one of the reasons for which many athletes would qualify as ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’ according to BMI scale.
Conclusion
The criticism of Body Mass Index or BMI as an indicator of health paint the inefficiencies in the tool. At the same time, it is also important to note that the BMI scale for ‘underweight’ and ‘overweight’ range has been associated with chronic diseases. On the other hand, it is important to note that height and weight cannot be the only determinants of the health of an individual. Therefore, it is important to look for better alternatives to measure your health to take good care of your health.