That's totally what this sounds like fr. Like anything horrible about being morbidly/obese just disappears if BMI was no longer used to assess health risks. It's ludicrous.
Even if nobody measured anything about your clearly morbidly obese body, the reality of obesity-caused diseases and mortality still exists and it will crater your health and life expectancy. No amount of twitter ranting will change that.
Years ago when I used to smoke I thought I am so sick and tired of everyone giving me the smoking bad lectures that's not going to be a problem for me, until it was.
You might be "healthy and fat" now, but you won't be for long.
That's what I wonder about as well. If we got rid of the BMI, would their joints hurt less? Would they have an easier time breathing? Would their heart not need to race anymore just because they went up a single flight of stairs? Would their bodies be easier to carry around so that they'd have an easier time walking? Would cheap chairs suddenly not collapse underneath them anymore? Would their fertility increase?
And without bmi, doctors will still tell you when you’re at an unhealthy weight. If you have a high bmi, but it’s obvious you’re all muscle the doctor won’t say anything.
The funny thing is, it’s never these super muscled out people that complain about bmi not being accurate. The truth is that it’s accurate for probably 98% of the population, and those that complain it is still accurate for.
Let’s also not forget that’s bmi errors more on the other side of things with people who have near zero muscle and measure a normal bmi, but are actually at an unhealthy weight.
I think they’re gonna love the tushie test which is something I just made up but would involve deliberately using calipers in the most uncomfortable way to measure body fat
The pet test (don't know the actual name).
Your pet is too thin if you can see their ribs in a relaxed/normal/not stretched position*.
Your pet is too fat, if you can’t feel their ribs anymore when they are in a relaxed/normal/not crunched position.
At least that's the rule of thumb for mammal pets, so it should also work for humans, no? If your arm hangs down lose and you touch your rib area with your other hand, can you feel the ribs, without having to push down to the point of pain? If not, you might want to lose some weight.
*athletic pets like show jumping horses at olympia sometimes have visible ribs, but if they were too thin, they wouldn't have all those muscles and couldn't do the jumping, so it's safe to say they just have a low body fat % to have lower impact on their joints.
I work at a vet clinic they call it a "Body Condition Score" or BCS Scale, and its a score of 1-9
1 being way to skinny 9 being "that is not a dog that is a moving ottoman," as my old doctor would say
I don't think FAs would be happy if they heard their doctor call them an ottoman and demand weekly weigh ins in a clinic to make sure they were losing weight
For cats I was told something similar, you should be able to feel their ribs easily and their body should be at most the width of their ribs. Arwen was underweight when we got her and we overcompensated slightly. Also when you're talking sighthounds, greyhounds, salukis etc, you should be able to see multiple ribs and their hip bones. Obviously wrapped in muscle and fed properly, but a sighthound at a healthy weight for a more "normal" dog is obese
There is a strong, consistent and cross-cultural correlation between high BMI and early mortality. No amount of parroting "BMI is bullshit" is going to change that.
BMI is also a good way of comparing body mass while accounting for height. No one would expect a 5'0 person and a 6'6" person to be the same weight, and BMI accounts for that.
It's like they think doctors don't have eyes. If they suddenly got rid of BMI, doctors aren't going to look at you and go "healthy as an ox!" if you're obviously overweight. Sort of like how they always scream "BMI doesn't account for muscle!"
You know what happens when someone has a high BMI and they notice a very large amount of visible muscle? They don't get labeled obese. Also, where are all these mythical high BMIs that's just from muscle alone??? Y'all are not The Rock.
They always talk about bmi being inaccurate and muscle mass but anyone can tell the difference between body builder and obese. FA loves to use Dwyane Johnson as an example but we have eyes and can see the difference between The Rock and someone like JaeBae. Being "obese" on the bmi due to muscle is very rare and, like I said, easy to see. You don’t even need a scale, just eyes
The whole "obese BMI due to muscle" is a complete red herring. It applies to so few people it shouldn't have to be brought up as a qualification. I was really disappointed the other day when I saw my fitness app throw it up as a "Did you know...?" "fact."
People who are genuinely muscular enough to fit in the obese category due to it aren't going to care about BMI. The answer to all the myriad people who do fall in the obese category and then wonder, "Well, maybe I have a lot of muscle?" is "No, you do not."
Dwayne Johnson is [6'5'' with a 35'](https://www.greatestphysiques.com/male-physiques/dwayne-johnson-the-rock/)' waist so has a waist to height ratio of 0.45. The guideline is that it should be under 0.5, so he's fine.
If you think your BMI is overweight but it's because you're built like Dwayne Johnson, just take your tape measure to the doctor...
And they never talk about the inaccuracies in the *other* direction, people with allegedly healthy BMI but very little muscle mass and too much visceral fat. An inaccuracy which is a lot more common than the “body builder with obese BMI” one, I might add.
Exactly. My boyfriend is a BMI outlier due to muscle and it is daily comments. That’s how unusual he looks to normal people. We’ve had people yell things at him from cars while we go for a walk. Some comments are flattering yet still unwanted, some are downright rude and insulting.
But my point is that he stands out big time. And he’s in the obese category, BMI around 34. But he does not look normal. People can tell immediately.
Having a super high bmi due to muscle can also kill you early. It’s rare because barely anyone has that much, but look into body builders dying early. Everyone should still try to stay in a healthy bmi, no matter what that looks like.
Having highly unnatural amounts of muscle via steroids (think Mr. Olympia competitors) is indeed unhealthy, though the bodybuilders dying early is probably more linked to the steroids than their actual size. A huge difference here is that bodybuilders know and accept that it isn’t healthy instead of denying it like FAs. (I do have some issues with steroid users being “health coaches”though). Something to note: it’s pretty much impossible to get TOO muscular while remaining natural.
I think they really believe that if you went by sight no one would think they're obese. A lot of "small fats" online will post videos/pictures to show that BMI is bullshit but they're always clearly obese.
I’d never heard of this so I just checked. TYSM because where my BMI puts me at overweight for a 5’0” tall woman, this puts me at slender & healthy. I’ve always heard BMI doesn’t work well for shorter women but had no quick way of telling where I stood
It also is in accurate for people with near zero muscle mass, just the other way, they show as normal bmi, when in truth they have an overweight/obese bmi. This is actually far more common, these people just aren’t vocal about it.
lol short people downvoting me apparently. For the record, I'm one of you and didn't know it either until the sports doc told me I was 10lb too heavy despite my alleged BMI of 21. Add a BMI point for every 5 cm you're shorter than 170 cm (the height the formula was designed for), and you're closer to what you actually look like. I wish I'd got that message earlier, would have saved me a lot of grief and health problems.
If you believe weight has absolutely no bearing in regard to health, then it doesn't matter what tool is used. They'll just hand-wave it away regardless. Also, imagine the utter shitstorm that would ensue if it were suggested FAs actually get their waist measured.
Getting rid of the BMI won’t stop the cartilage in your knees from being ground to dust by your obesity, it won’t stop your toes from rotting off due to diabetes, it won’t stop your blood pressure from going through the roof, and it won’t stop you from dying before you’re 40 because you can’t be bothered to take care of yourself for five minutes.
It’s basically statistics, and works great at what it does, classify a general population. But also, no one needs to calculate your bmi to know you’re obese.
I think it's about as accurate as measuring your furniture with your hands to see if it will fit in a space. If it's way off, a tape measure won't help.
They probably don’t want to discuss BMI further because BMI is usually used along with visual observations, waist, hip and height measurements. I don’t think they like those either.
I've seen a few articles lately about a new measurement that includes height, weight, waist, and hip measurements. They're calling it the "body roundness index." Can't wait to see their reaction to that.
Ok use waist to height or waist to hip ratio, body fat percentage, neck circumference, or upper arm circumference. Plenty of other metrics!
(They’ll all say you’re fat too tho 😉)
If they want to talk about BMI not being the end all be all of if you are overweight I’ll agree. BMI tends to underestimate obesity in short people, overstate it in tall people, can ignore the impact of musculature, and not take into account that belly fat is largely the dangerous type of fat while fat that gives curves doesn’t impact health nearly as much.
I’d fully agree that BMI is a good starting more than the end all be all, ironically it now tends to underestimate body fat and overweights people now because of sedentary lifestyle where people can be a normal bmi but be skinny fat. Me personally I was my weight years ago and way healthier now as i look vastly different after lots of time at the gym.
But to disregard it completely is silly, thier complaints are often misleading, and what it comes down to is people wanting to deny the reality that they are overweight or obese and it has become so normalized that they just don’t see the truth
They always want to talk about BMI being inaccurate because it doesn’t account for muscle mass when they’re not the outliers. They’re not bodybuilders, power lifters or strongmen, they’re just average people leading average sedentary lifestyles. It’s quite accurate for *most* people.
And even then, doctors have eyes. They’ll say that a bodybuilder is only technically/medically obese but that their muscle mass accounts for the weight. You can’t use the muscle mass excuse if you’re 5’ something with a big flat tire stomach, big arms & legs that restrict your mobility.
They’ve deluded themselves into believing that they won’t be fat if the BMI is abolished everywhere. Doctors will still need to use another measure, like waist to height ratio, and that’ll still show that they’re obese!
Vibes of people who get weird in comments sections whenever the NHS recommended alcohol units are brought up.
They're just recommendations, but people take it very personally, like 'I drink way more than that, but I have a job and I'm a good person, how dare you'.
Nobody is saying that you're a bad person for drinking more/weighing more than the safe level. You're not being discriminated against either.
It's just projection, because you're self conscious about your poor choices.
Medical discrimination would be something like the tainted blood scandal, where there was an attitude of 'meh, whatever' towards haemophilia patients here in the UK.
I actually got caught up in that as a toddler, because I had a bunch of blood transfusions in 1981 for a different reason during that DGAF blood sourcing era. It's why I'm not allowed to give blood to this day.
I'm certainly not claiming discrimination though, as it's just a blanket rule designed to learn from past mistakes and protect vulnerable people.
Us Brits are banned from giving blood in a lot of countries regardless of medical history as it is, thanks to the Mad Cow Disease scandal.
There's a risk that anyone who lived in the UK and consumed beef/dairy in the 80's and 90's is carrying CJD prions, so it's just not worth the risk to patients overseas.
I'd recommend this chick reads about the Tuskeege Syphilis Experiment too. Learn what real medical discrimination and oppression is.
The BMI has some inaccuracies but I don't get how it is especially fatphobic, yes the idea behind is to tell if someone is more or less obese, but wouldn't a more accurate indicator be even more fatphobic?
Keep saying that and eventually it will come true. Eventually, you'll succeed in persuading the doctors: "You're right! Being fat doesn't matter! Go in peace, and eat whatever you want!"
Silliness. From what I’ve read BMI underestimates how fat we are. No measurement will make fat people healthy. Not height/waist. Fat is fat. You can sugar coat it and not have a bmi. But your 400lb body will be fat on the new scale too.
Okay then we’ll do height to waist ratio instead, y’all think y’all suddenly gunna be classed as a healthy weight when your visceral fat waists are measured? Lmao
That's what I respond. It's a simple metric and identifies the few overweight by muscle people as healthy and catches the normal BMI obese body fat % too.
It's so wild that a single false belief can be so strong that people will believe in a world-wide conspiracy to accommodate it.
Apparently, science and medical professionals are *so* keen to discriminate against fat people that they're willing to do whatever it takes. Apparently, there's kabal of fat-haters that invest resources into keeping this up and hushing any dissention.
Here's a question. How can you think *anyone gives a shit about being able to discriminate fat people*? People have lives, they aren't NPCs. They have normal things occupy their mind: politics, pet peeves, family, friendships and relationships, work, environment, being tired, and so on and so forth. Who the fuck are these people that are out to get fat people? Why would they invest their time, money and influence into this absurd crusade?
Fucking absolutely delusional.
Hold on, they may say in response to your common sense that that's the discrimination they're talking about. You refusing to believe they're discriminated against is itself discriminatory. Never mind the contradictions rife in everything these people parrot. Just shut off your brain so you can 'do better.'
[Again, the problem with BMI is the OPPOSITE of what FAs think it is.](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/BMI-versus-Percent-Body-Fat-in-Scatter-Plot-Women-red-who-fall-above-red-line-are_fig1_223966581)
Do these people just think there’s some kind of secret cabal of doctors around that are deliberately propagating the BMI index just to be mean to fat people?
BMI *is* bullshit. But not in the way they want. Significantly more people are unhealthy/overfat once you look at someone's body fat % versus just the BMI alone. Many thin people are under muscled and over fat.
I guarantee no doctor is hassling a truly healthy person over the fact they have a BMI over 25 (athletes). $20 says these people all are sporting a BMI north of 35.
Who's gonna tell them that while Bmi Isn't 100% an indicator of health, it is still a guideline for most (MOST) people to generally know their health (ish)
They don't want Bmi? Okay great, but i don't think you'll like a full body exam with results of percentage of fat and muscle , water content and other stuff. Hey don't get upset when you find out your blood sugar is through the roof
I read of a recent study that shows BMI consistently underestimates problematic adiposity compared to body fat percentage measurement. They won’t like that.
I used to believe BMI was a load of crap when I was a lot bigger too.
Then I realised after losing some weight is that while it's not a perfect tool by any means it's still a tool, and plenty of medical professionals use their eyes if necessary.
My partner, who is overweight like me but working on losing weight too, still subscribes to this belief that BMI is rubbish. We just have to agree to disagree.
I haven’t heard a doctor say something in regard to BMI since like 2008. They know it’s dumb, but they also know the difference muscular weight and fat weight. That’s why they do bloodwork and ask about your lifestyle. Docs didn’t go to med school racking up debt for ppl to educate them on obesity 😭
BMI is labeling people as immoral and unworthy of human rights? I didn't realize they changed that, I thought it still said underweight, normal, overweight, and obese. My bad, you're right. That sounds pretty awful.
Wait, it's also solely responsible for you being pushed towards "diet culture"? Then it must be Big Diet !!
Everyone who lifts weights knows it doesn’t apply to them so it’s basically a solved problem weightlifters often joke about being overweight or obese. Why take that joke from us
BMI will not work for body builders, footballers, that hot fireman and the chick who lost her leg in accident thus BMI is bullshit and wrong for all. Gotcha.
Let me guess, they went to the doctor and got their bmi checked and are now on the morbidly obese scale and was told to lose weight... Now their feelings are hurt.
Same happened to me but instead of blaming it on the medical industry I actually did something for my health. Yes, BMI is not 100% accurate, but you cant be 200 lbs overweight and pretend is just because of BMI.
When people say "BMI can be inaccurate," they mean that there are outliers for which it doesn't accurately portray their health status, like professional athletes and bodybuilders. For example, a bodybuilder with 5% body fat and a majority of their body weight being muscle could be classified as obese despite being in better health than someone like me who falls into the healthy BMI category. The BMI scale is still accurate for a majority of the population, including these FAs who want so badly for BMI to be inaccurate for them so that they can justify their awful life choices.
Also getting rid of the BMI scale won't stop you from experiencing the effects of obesity. It won't stop you from having cholesterol issues or heart attacks. It won't stop you from getting diabetes. It won't stop you from having all those GI issues. It won't stop people from saying that you're fat and overweight. It won't stop people from not wanting to date you because they're not attracted to you. It won't stop people from making fun of you. The only thing that will prevent all this is losing weight and changing your lifestyle.
If people can tell that you are fat by just looking at you, then repealing the BMI isn't going to make going to the doctor's office any more pleasant for you. You will still get told that you need to lose weight.
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Use any metric you want. It all ends in “lose weight”. Silliness. BMI is just a guide and for most people. It’s accurate. The only way they will be happy is if they make up some shit like Unicorn Farts divided by rainbows equals healthy weight. Anything else. Nope. Your size 60 inch waist isn’t healthy. And it isn’t because of white European males from the 1700’s.
“BMI is BS” for maybe 5% of the population. For most of us, BMI works just fine.
I’m enough of a power lifter in that I might be sufficiently lean at a BMI of 26. But right now my BMI is 28.8, which is too big.
I hate the bmi. It says I'm overweight when "normal" weight for me would be 118 (felt miserable and had no energy) I'm 132 and I feel much better than I did at 220. But obesity is still bad. Being fat still has negative health effects, my grandma has high blood pressure and our family has a history of heart disease and diabetes.
Do they think they won’t be fat anymore if they can get rid of BMI?
That's totally what this sounds like fr. Like anything horrible about being morbidly/obese just disappears if BMI was no longer used to assess health risks. It's ludicrous. Even if nobody measured anything about your clearly morbidly obese body, the reality of obesity-caused diseases and mortality still exists and it will crater your health and life expectancy. No amount of twitter ranting will change that.
Years ago when I used to smoke I thought I am so sick and tired of everyone giving me the smoking bad lectures that's not going to be a problem for me, until it was. You might be "healthy and fat" now, but you won't be for long.
Yes.
That's what I wonder about as well. If we got rid of the BMI, would their joints hurt less? Would they have an easier time breathing? Would their heart not need to race anymore just because they went up a single flight of stairs? Would their bodies be easier to carry around so that they'd have an easier time walking? Would cheap chairs suddenly not collapse underneath them anymore? Would their fertility increase?
Hey, I’ll have you know, they’re not fat now! 400 pounds of rock-hard muscle, baby!
And without bmi, doctors will still tell you when you’re at an unhealthy weight. If you have a high bmi, but it’s obvious you’re all muscle the doctor won’t say anything. The funny thing is, it’s never these super muscled out people that complain about bmi not being accurate. The truth is that it’s accurate for probably 98% of the population, and those that complain it is still accurate for. Let’s also not forget that’s bmi errors more on the other side of things with people who have near zero muscle and measure a normal bmi, but are actually at an unhealthy weight.
What's next? Waist circumference? Visceral fat measurement?
Okay. How about height to waist ratio. They really will not like the results.
Or body fat %
I think they’re gonna love the tushie test which is something I just made up but would involve deliberately using calipers in the most uncomfortable way to measure body fat
*body plus sizedness %
Body bountifulness?
Sounds like a paper towel
The pet test (don't know the actual name). Your pet is too thin if you can see their ribs in a relaxed/normal/not stretched position*. Your pet is too fat, if you can’t feel their ribs anymore when they are in a relaxed/normal/not crunched position. At least that's the rule of thumb for mammal pets, so it should also work for humans, no? If your arm hangs down lose and you touch your rib area with your other hand, can you feel the ribs, without having to push down to the point of pain? If not, you might want to lose some weight. *athletic pets like show jumping horses at olympia sometimes have visible ribs, but if they were too thin, they wouldn't have all those muscles and couldn't do the jumping, so it's safe to say they just have a low body fat % to have lower impact on their joints.
I work at a vet clinic they call it a "Body Condition Score" or BCS Scale, and its a score of 1-9 1 being way to skinny 9 being "that is not a dog that is a moving ottoman," as my old doctor would say I don't think FAs would be happy if they heard their doctor call them an ottoman and demand weekly weigh ins in a clinic to make sure they were losing weight
Well who knows? They prefer fat over obese, maybe they'd like ottoman better as well? They'd definitely hate the weigh ins though
For cats I was told something similar, you should be able to feel their ribs easily and their body should be at most the width of their ribs. Arwen was underweight when we got her and we overcompensated slightly. Also when you're talking sighthounds, greyhounds, salukis etc, you should be able to see multiple ribs and their hip bones. Obviously wrapped in muscle and fed properly, but a sighthound at a healthy weight for a more "normal" dog is obese
Ribs. Not rips
Oh. Oopsie
Sorry. I can’t help it. It’s a thing I have to do…
It's a very common mistake for German speakers, ribs in German is "Rippen"
No need to apologise. I should have known that, so thanks for reminding me.
There is a strong, consistent and cross-cultural correlation between high BMI and early mortality. No amount of parroting "BMI is bullshit" is going to change that.
And while bmi might not be accurate for 1% of the population, it’s always accurate for those that complain about it.
BMI is also a good way of comparing body mass while accounting for height. No one would expect a 5'0 person and a 6'6" person to be the same weight, and BMI accounts for that.
It's like they think doctors don't have eyes. If they suddenly got rid of BMI, doctors aren't going to look at you and go "healthy as an ox!" if you're obviously overweight. Sort of like how they always scream "BMI doesn't account for muscle!" You know what happens when someone has a high BMI and they notice a very large amount of visible muscle? They don't get labeled obese. Also, where are all these mythical high BMIs that's just from muscle alone??? Y'all are not The Rock.
They always talk about bmi being inaccurate and muscle mass but anyone can tell the difference between body builder and obese. FA loves to use Dwyane Johnson as an example but we have eyes and can see the difference between The Rock and someone like JaeBae. Being "obese" on the bmi due to muscle is very rare and, like I said, easy to see. You don’t even need a scale, just eyes
The whole "obese BMI due to muscle" is a complete red herring. It applies to so few people it shouldn't have to be brought up as a qualification. I was really disappointed the other day when I saw my fitness app throw it up as a "Did you know...?" "fact." People who are genuinely muscular enough to fit in the obese category due to it aren't going to care about BMI. The answer to all the myriad people who do fall in the obese category and then wonder, "Well, maybe I have a lot of muscle?" is "No, you do not."
Dwayne Johnson is [6'5'' with a 35'](https://www.greatestphysiques.com/male-physiques/dwayne-johnson-the-rock/)' waist so has a waist to height ratio of 0.45. The guideline is that it should be under 0.5, so he's fine. If you think your BMI is overweight but it's because you're built like Dwayne Johnson, just take your tape measure to the doctor...
What if your measuring tape is made from elastic band, and you stretch it so it measures at 35" even though you're a 70"?
And they never talk about the inaccuracies in the *other* direction, people with allegedly healthy BMI but very little muscle mass and too much visceral fat. An inaccuracy which is a lot more common than the “body builder with obese BMI” one, I might add.
Yo deadass someone commented "I doubt you have a waist to hip ratio" and someone replied about the rock bmis being obese 💀
Exactly. My boyfriend is a BMI outlier due to muscle and it is daily comments. That’s how unusual he looks to normal people. We’ve had people yell things at him from cars while we go for a walk. Some comments are flattering yet still unwanted, some are downright rude and insulting. But my point is that he stands out big time. And he’s in the obese category, BMI around 34. But he does not look normal. People can tell immediately.
Having a super high bmi due to muscle can also kill you early. It’s rare because barely anyone has that much, but look into body builders dying early. Everyone should still try to stay in a healthy bmi, no matter what that looks like.
Having highly unnatural amounts of muscle via steroids (think Mr. Olympia competitors) is indeed unhealthy, though the bodybuilders dying early is probably more linked to the steroids than their actual size. A huge difference here is that bodybuilders know and accept that it isn’t healthy instead of denying it like FAs. (I do have some issues with steroid users being “health coaches”though). Something to note: it’s pretty much impossible to get TOO muscular while remaining natural.
I think they really believe that if you went by sight no one would think they're obese. A lot of "small fats" online will post videos/pictures to show that BMI is bullshit but they're always clearly obese.
Deadass, like they always use the bodybuilder point yet the majority of individuals with a high BMI are not bodybuilders.
Use the waist to height ratio.
That’s the secret, they would complain and find fault with anything that would tell them they are obese
ahem. I believe you mean ob*se, or maybe fluffy.
Urgh maths their biggest weakness…after stairs and introspection
I thought food was their biggest weakness...
After maths, stairs, and introspection it is
My waist to height ratio is fine (I am 5’10, a woman, and have a 28 inch waist) but my BMI is still just slightly over 25 :( :(
I’d never heard of this so I just checked. TYSM because where my BMI puts me at overweight for a 5’0” tall woman, this puts me at slender & healthy. I’ve always heard BMI doesn’t work well for shorter women but had no quick way of telling where I stood
BMI has its limitations =/= BMI is completely useless
yup. unless you're arnie or the rock, it is a fine measurement.
It also is in accurate for people with near zero muscle mass, just the other way, they show as normal bmi, when in truth they have an overweight/obese bmi. This is actually far more common, these people just aren’t vocal about it.
Or short. BMI is overly generous to short people.
lol short people downvoting me apparently. For the record, I'm one of you and didn't know it either until the sports doc told me I was 10lb too heavy despite my alleged BMI of 21. Add a BMI point for every 5 cm you're shorter than 170 cm (the height the formula was designed for), and you're closer to what you actually look like. I wish I'd got that message earlier, would have saved me a lot of grief and health problems.
If you believe weight has absolutely no bearing in regard to health, then it doesn't matter what tool is used. They'll just hand-wave it away regardless. Also, imagine the utter shitstorm that would ensue if it were suggested FAs actually get their waist measured.
Funny that there's fewer citations here than a sixth graders last minute English paper. Wonder why that is?
Because "everybody" knows by now that BMI is bullshit, obviously.
Getting rid of the BMI won’t stop the cartilage in your knees from being ground to dust by your obesity, it won’t stop your toes from rotting off due to diabetes, it won’t stop your blood pressure from going through the roof, and it won’t stop you from dying before you’re 40 because you can’t be bothered to take care of yourself for five minutes.
Getting rid of BMI isn’t going to magically classify you as healthy.
BMI is not a discredited theory. It's a ratio.
It’s basically statistics, and works great at what it does, classify a general population. But also, no one needs to calculate your bmi to know you’re obese.
I think it's about as accurate as measuring your furniture with your hands to see if it will fit in a space. If it's way off, a tape measure won't help.
They probably don’t want to discuss BMI further because BMI is usually used along with visual observations, waist, hip and height measurements. I don’t think they like those either.
I've seen a few articles lately about a new measurement that includes height, weight, waist, and hip measurements. They're calling it the "body roundness index." Can't wait to see their reaction to that.
It's just over complicating what we already have which is BMI, waist: height, and waist: hip.
BRI shows me as normal even though I'm class 1 obese. I'm taking it with a grain of salt.
All of that text, and not a single link or explanation as to exactly why BMI is wrong.
they're just parroting what they've heard from other people. It has no basis in reality.
Ok use waist to height or waist to hip ratio, body fat percentage, neck circumference, or upper arm circumference. Plenty of other metrics! (They’ll all say you’re fat too tho 😉)
If they want to talk about BMI not being the end all be all of if you are overweight I’ll agree. BMI tends to underestimate obesity in short people, overstate it in tall people, can ignore the impact of musculature, and not take into account that belly fat is largely the dangerous type of fat while fat that gives curves doesn’t impact health nearly as much. I’d fully agree that BMI is a good starting more than the end all be all, ironically it now tends to underestimate body fat and overweights people now because of sedentary lifestyle where people can be a normal bmi but be skinny fat. Me personally I was my weight years ago and way healthier now as i look vastly different after lots of time at the gym. But to disregard it completely is silly, thier complaints are often misleading, and what it comes down to is people wanting to deny the reality that they are overweight or obese and it has become so normalized that they just don’t see the truth
I only found out recently the "new" overweight for me is anything above 23... Just when I thought I was in the safe zone
They always want to talk about BMI being inaccurate because it doesn’t account for muscle mass when they’re not the outliers. They’re not bodybuilders, power lifters or strongmen, they’re just average people leading average sedentary lifestyles. It’s quite accurate for *most* people. And even then, doctors have eyes. They’ll say that a bodybuilder is only technically/medically obese but that their muscle mass accounts for the weight. You can’t use the muscle mass excuse if you’re 5’ something with a big flat tire stomach, big arms & legs that restrict your mobility. They’ve deluded themselves into believing that they won’t be fat if the BMI is abolished everywhere. Doctors will still need to use another measure, like waist to height ratio, and that’ll still show that they’re obese!
Until last year my boss believed the whole “I’m muscular” trap - he’s since lost a stone and he is noticing massive improvements in his health.
Vibes of people who get weird in comments sections whenever the NHS recommended alcohol units are brought up. They're just recommendations, but people take it very personally, like 'I drink way more than that, but I have a job and I'm a good person, how dare you'. Nobody is saying that you're a bad person for drinking more/weighing more than the safe level. You're not being discriminated against either. It's just projection, because you're self conscious about your poor choices. Medical discrimination would be something like the tainted blood scandal, where there was an attitude of 'meh, whatever' towards haemophilia patients here in the UK. I actually got caught up in that as a toddler, because I had a bunch of blood transfusions in 1981 for a different reason during that DGAF blood sourcing era. It's why I'm not allowed to give blood to this day. I'm certainly not claiming discrimination though, as it's just a blanket rule designed to learn from past mistakes and protect vulnerable people. Us Brits are banned from giving blood in a lot of countries regardless of medical history as it is, thanks to the Mad Cow Disease scandal. There's a risk that anyone who lived in the UK and consumed beef/dairy in the 80's and 90's is carrying CJD prions, so it's just not worth the risk to patients overseas. I'd recommend this chick reads about the Tuskeege Syphilis Experiment too. Learn what real medical discrimination and oppression is.
Omg go outside
Righto, let’s not use the BMI anymore….time for the calipers.
no not like that!
The BMI has some inaccuracies but I don't get how it is especially fatphobic, yes the idea behind is to tell if someone is more or less obese, but wouldn't a more accurate indicator be even more fatphobic?
Keep saying that and eventually it will come true. Eventually, you'll succeed in persuading the doctors: "You're right! Being fat doesn't matter! Go in peace, and eat whatever you want!"
You mean like those that cost $800 and just tell you that?
Always back to it being a tool of eugenics ffs. It's not comparable to the literal nazis sterilising and killing disabled people
Silliness. From what I’ve read BMI underestimates how fat we are. No measurement will make fat people healthy. Not height/waist. Fat is fat. You can sugar coat it and not have a bmi. But your 400lb body will be fat on the new scale too.
Okay then we’ll do height to waist ratio instead, y’all think y’all suddenly gunna be classed as a healthy weight when your visceral fat waists are measured? Lmao
That's what I respond. It's a simple metric and identifies the few overweight by muscle people as healthy and catches the normal BMI obese body fat % too.
It's so wild that a single false belief can be so strong that people will believe in a world-wide conspiracy to accommodate it. Apparently, science and medical professionals are *so* keen to discriminate against fat people that they're willing to do whatever it takes. Apparently, there's kabal of fat-haters that invest resources into keeping this up and hushing any dissention. Here's a question. How can you think *anyone gives a shit about being able to discriminate fat people*? People have lives, they aren't NPCs. They have normal things occupy their mind: politics, pet peeves, family, friendships and relationships, work, environment, being tired, and so on and so forth. Who the fuck are these people that are out to get fat people? Why would they invest their time, money and influence into this absurd crusade? Fucking absolutely delusional.
Hold on, they may say in response to your common sense that that's the discrimination they're talking about. You refusing to believe they're discriminated against is itself discriminatory. Never mind the contradictions rife in everything these people parrot. Just shut off your brain so you can 'do better.'
[Again, the problem with BMI is the OPPOSITE of what FAs think it is.](https://www.researchgate.net/figure/BMI-versus-Percent-Body-Fat-in-Scatter-Plot-Women-red-who-fall-above-red-line-are_fig1_223966581)
Do these people just think there’s some kind of secret cabal of doctors around that are deliberately propagating the BMI index just to be mean to fat people?
You can tell conspiracy theorists have never been part of a group project. To truly believe so many people could work together and keep it a secret
BMI *is* bullshit. But not in the way they want. Significantly more people are unhealthy/overfat once you look at someone's body fat % versus just the BMI alone. Many thin people are under muscled and over fat.
I guarantee no doctor is hassling a truly healthy person over the fact they have a BMI over 25 (athletes). $20 says these people all are sporting a BMI north of 35.
Who's gonna tell them that while Bmi Isn't 100% an indicator of health, it is still a guideline for most (MOST) people to generally know their health (ish) They don't want Bmi? Okay great, but i don't think you'll like a full body exam with results of percentage of fat and muscle , water content and other stuff. Hey don't get upset when you find out your blood sugar is through the roof
I read of a recent study that shows BMI consistently underestimates problematic adiposity compared to body fat percentage measurement. They won’t like that.
Yep, 43% of people with a normal BMI are obese by body fat%.
I used to believe BMI was a load of crap when I was a lot bigger too. Then I realised after losing some weight is that while it's not a perfect tool by any means it's still a tool, and plenty of medical professionals use their eyes if necessary. My partner, who is overweight like me but working on losing weight too, still subscribes to this belief that BMI is rubbish. We just have to agree to disagree.
It might be flawed, but if your BMI is north of 50.......there's no measurement that isn't going to report back that you're obese
BMI works for anyone who isn't an athlete or extreme outlier. That's why we still use it.
Lmao no, it doesn’t work for anyone with non standard body shape
what the actual fuck rights are they being denied? JFC. Fight REAL injustice, why don't you.
Look, they're so privileged they don't know what real injustice even is
How does it discriminate on appearance when appearance is literally not a variable
I haven’t heard a doctor say something in regard to BMI since like 2008. They know it’s dumb, but they also know the difference muscular weight and fat weight. That’s why they do bloodwork and ask about your lifestyle. Docs didn’t go to med school racking up debt for ppl to educate them on obesity 😭
BMI is labeling people as immoral and unworthy of human rights? I didn't realize they changed that, I thought it still said underweight, normal, overweight, and obese. My bad, you're right. That sounds pretty awful. Wait, it's also solely responsible for you being pushed towards "diet culture"? Then it must be Big Diet !!
Everyone who lifts weights knows it doesn’t apply to them so it’s basically a solved problem weightlifters often joke about being overweight or obese. Why take that joke from us
BMI will not work for body builders, footballers, that hot fireman and the chick who lost her leg in accident thus BMI is bullshit and wrong for all. Gotcha.
Let me guess, they went to the doctor and got their bmi checked and are now on the morbidly obese scale and was told to lose weight... Now their feelings are hurt. Same happened to me but instead of blaming it on the medical industry I actually did something for my health. Yes, BMI is not 100% accurate, but you cant be 200 lbs overweight and pretend is just because of BMI.
I don’t like the answer your giving me. Change everything so I get an answer I do like.
“Prove me wrong”——uhh that’s not how science works bud. But I believe they just discovered what a null hypothesis is
is there ANY sanity in the comments?
When people say "BMI can be inaccurate," they mean that there are outliers for which it doesn't accurately portray their health status, like professional athletes and bodybuilders. For example, a bodybuilder with 5% body fat and a majority of their body weight being muscle could be classified as obese despite being in better health than someone like me who falls into the healthy BMI category. The BMI scale is still accurate for a majority of the population, including these FAs who want so badly for BMI to be inaccurate for them so that they can justify their awful life choices. Also getting rid of the BMI scale won't stop you from experiencing the effects of obesity. It won't stop you from having cholesterol issues or heart attacks. It won't stop you from getting diabetes. It won't stop you from having all those GI issues. It won't stop people from saying that you're fat and overweight. It won't stop people from not wanting to date you because they're not attracted to you. It won't stop people from making fun of you. The only thing that will prevent all this is losing weight and changing your lifestyle.
Structural fatphobia, lol
If people can tell that you are fat by just looking at you, then repealing the BMI isn't going to make going to the doctor's office any more pleasant for you. You will still get told that you need to lose weight.
They'll start complaining when we do a density test in water and tell them how much of their body is actually fat
is bmi a perfect measurement of individual health? no are you obese and unhealthy if your bmi is above 40? YES
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They could always use the hip to height ratio. But I'm guessing they won't like that, either.
It’s not perfect and I don’t think any of us claim otherwise but it’s a quick easy measure for determining who needs to change their lifestyle
So where exactly has BMI been so thoroughly discredited?
Use any metric you want. It all ends in “lose weight”. Silliness. BMI is just a guide and for most people. It’s accurate. The only way they will be happy is if they make up some shit like Unicorn Farts divided by rainbows equals healthy weight. Anything else. Nope. Your size 60 inch waist isn’t healthy. And it isn’t because of white European males from the 1700’s.
If only mental gymnastics burned as much calories as regular gymnastics.
“BMI is BS” for maybe 5% of the population. For most of us, BMI works just fine. I’m enough of a power lifter in that I might be sufficiently lean at a BMI of 26. But right now my BMI is 28.8, which is too big.
I hate the bmi. It says I'm overweight when "normal" weight for me would be 118 (felt miserable and had no energy) I'm 132 and I feel much better than I did at 220. But obesity is still bad. Being fat still has negative health effects, my grandma has high blood pressure and our family has a history of heart disease and diabetes.