Introudcing....the BMI! When you punch your height and weight in an online calculator, this is what it does:
BMI= weight in pounds x 703
height in inches squared
Thank you Wikipedia for that somewhat bewildering formula (703? I'm assuming it's some kind of a conversion factor, the orginal equation was metric...still, 703??). While I'm sure I could look up how it was derived, I'm not sure it's quite worth our time. Anyways, on a more practical note...
The BMI is over a 150 years old, and originally developed for physicians so that they could discuss over and under weight issues with their patients using a simple, objective number. In fact, the article specifies that the BMI was originally for use with sedentary patients.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that sedentary patients don't have much muscle mass. I'm going to go out on another limb and suggest that this is why, according to the value produced by the BMI, Arnold Schwarzenegger is clinically obese. The BMI was not designed for athletes.
The BMI has its flaws (doesn't count bone density, muscle mass, the equation doesn't work as well at taller heights, etc), but historically it has provided a good jumping off point for over and under weight discussions. It's simple, and pardon my frankness but....
If you are quite honestly fat (like dough boy fat) and you want to know if you're obese, this may be the way to go. After all, it's only a suggestion. Or if you're really bony and you're not sure if it's healthy, it may be a good suggestion to take into account. Of course, I'm not a doctor or a trainer. I'm just a blogger looking at the potential usefulness of one of the most prevalent "figures" in modern fitness.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Let's Talk, BMI
I have a few choice words for my BMI: suck it.
For those of you who don't know, BMI measures your body mass index. Hypothetically, by putting in your height and weight into a little equation (calculators like this one even do it for you), it can tell you how fat you are. Less than 18.5? Underweight. 18.5-24.9? Normal. 25-29.9? Overweight. Over 30? You're obese. Well, at least according to that calculator.
I went and played with another one specially formatted for children and teens, and put out by the CDC (link to it here). This one had a different standard, with this funky little spectrum.
Now that I've introduced you to the BMI (BMI, meet the reader; reader meet the BMI), it's time to get a little bit gnarlier. Frankly put, it's not me...it's you.
Flaws with the BMI as a measuring tool have come up before (anyone remember the Megan Fox interview?). BMI doesn't take muscle into account, or gender, or frame...or any of those little human quirks we have. Need more proof? The second calculator told me that if I weighed 119 pounds, I would still be at a healthy weight. By the standards of the modeling industry, that would totally fly. For intance, in 2009, a story went around about a 5'10, 120 pound model being fired from Ralph Lauren....for being too fat. Don't believe me? Google the story, read this article...it's out there, it happened. I'm 5'8. If I were a 120 pounds, I would still be a fatty by those standards. Thankfully I have the BMI to tell me that I'm a normal weight!
That would be fine and well until I looked in a mirror. Now, I'm not totally sure what I would look like at 119/120 pounds, but I'm going to guess it wouldn't be pretty, and I doubt I would be as strong seeing as muscle weighs more than fat.
So, about the muscle weighing more than fat issue...BMI, stop telling me I'm fatter, because the mirror says I'm not. During this summer, I've gained four to six pounds...but I look better, lost about a size. And according to my BMI, I'm fatter. Math makes you skinny, but what it gives with one hand it takes with the other.
I'm not exactly sure where the blame falls. Me, for exercising more? Society, for using the BMI the way we do? The BMI, for being an imperfect calculation? Society again, for proliferating the use of the BMI beyond health clinics?
I think it's high time for a new project....How to eat like a model vs the BMI.
PS: for all of you metric users, those calculators will work in metric conversions. Enjoy!
For those of you who don't know, BMI measures your body mass index. Hypothetically, by putting in your height and weight into a little equation (calculators like this one even do it for you), it can tell you how fat you are. Less than 18.5? Underweight. 18.5-24.9? Normal. 25-29.9? Overweight. Over 30? You're obese. Well, at least according to that calculator.
I went and played with another one specially formatted for children and teens, and put out by the CDC (link to it here). This one had a different standard, with this funky little spectrum.
Now that I've introduced you to the BMI (BMI, meet the reader; reader meet the BMI), it's time to get a little bit gnarlier. Frankly put, it's not me...it's you.
Flaws with the BMI as a measuring tool have come up before (anyone remember the Megan Fox interview?). BMI doesn't take muscle into account, or gender, or frame...or any of those little human quirks we have. Need more proof? The second calculator told me that if I weighed 119 pounds, I would still be at a healthy weight. By the standards of the modeling industry, that would totally fly. For intance, in 2009, a story went around about a 5'10, 120 pound model being fired from Ralph Lauren....for being too fat. Don't believe me? Google the story, read this article...it's out there, it happened. I'm 5'8. If I were a 120 pounds, I would still be a fatty by those standards. Thankfully I have the BMI to tell me that I'm a normal weight!
That would be fine and well until I looked in a mirror. Now, I'm not totally sure what I would look like at 119/120 pounds, but I'm going to guess it wouldn't be pretty, and I doubt I would be as strong seeing as muscle weighs more than fat.
So, about the muscle weighing more than fat issue...BMI, stop telling me I'm fatter, because the mirror says I'm not. During this summer, I've gained four to six pounds...but I look better, lost about a size. And according to my BMI, I'm fatter. Math makes you skinny, but what it gives with one hand it takes with the other.
I'm not exactly sure where the blame falls. Me, for exercising more? Society, for using the BMI the way we do? The BMI, for being an imperfect calculation? Society again, for proliferating the use of the BMI beyond health clinics?
I think it's high time for a new project....How to eat like a model vs the BMI.
PS: for all of you metric users, those calculators will work in metric conversions. Enjoy!
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