BMI....is it a load of shit?

[McDougal]

According to the BMI calculator, I am obese. I'd like to think I'm fairly active, trying to keep up with a four year old, running and classes at least 3 times a week, but BMI disagrees.

Anyone else believe that BMI just does not take into account - build, muscle weight etc?

Yes. It's a blunt instrument.

You can be pretty active and still obese. BMI isn't really shit - it just doesn't account for body shapes which are a bit out of the ordinary eg body builders/rugby players. How tall are you? Do you think you're overweight? What clothes size do you wear?

Bmi works out unfavourable for tall people

Are you tall?

You can be both active and overweight. How does your waist compare to your height? That's a better indicator of health - BMI is just the easiest indicator to measure.

Mmm...I dunno. There has to be a more accurate way of measuring your body though. Can you still get those caliper thingies that pinch your flesh?

I agree that Bmi is a blunt instrument perhaps but probably works as a guide.

I don't weight so don't know what my BMI is; I go more by feel, clothes, how much flesh I can pinch etc.

Oh yes, the waist measurement is important because it measures how much internal fat you've got or something.

Mine's pushing 32. I'm middle-aged, but that's still getting too big, apparently.

I thought BMI was inaccurate and I am just a heavy/muscular build. Then looked at DD and took a proper look at myself and realised that with a 28 ribcage and relatively small wrists my frame couldn't be that big and the fact that I am top end of overweight can't just be muscle.

Bmi is already a range to account for the normal range of body shapes. It's unlikely that you are one of the outliers, purely on the exertion required to chase after a toddler, unless you are physically very much out of the ordinary.

I was bordering on obese in my late 20s and happily spent all day on my feet at work then often went for a long walk, in the evening.

In my late 40s, now and after steadily gaining weight again, reaching a stone less than my peak in my 20s, I found myself really struggling with the same 1km uphill walk back from the local school that I'd been doing 2 or 3 times a day for the past decade. My feet hurt and I was getting sweaty and out of breath.

You have to ask yourself honestly whether you think you can stay fit and healthy at your current weight, as well as being honest with yourself about whether it is stable, right now, or slowly increasing.

You can be fat and quite fit, unless you are stacked like a muscle machine then you probably have too much chub. Bmi has a big range and though blunt there are few outliers who live normal lives. I am at the top end of mine and very wobbly at the moment - I can still run but honestly am better at it with 20lbs off and still easily within my bmi. Also have a pretty big frame and giant feet - couldn't ever be at the lower end happily

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm definitely heavier than I should be for my height (5' 2") but not particularly wobbly! I gain muscle quite easily but do a fair amount of weight training which will probably add to my weight.

Might have to do more cardio and shift these pounds!

I am 5'5. When I had a 26 inch waist and wore size 8/10 skinny jeans, I was supposedly still obese according to my BMI.

I'll bite, Fenella. What was your weight with the 26" waist.

I have a 26" waist and am quite muscular. I weight train 5x a week as well as doing lots of cardio and endurance. My BMI is 20.1.

I think as a general tool, it's okay. Outliers are to be expected but I think the majority of people coming up as obese will be obese.

I'd never use it as a measure of fitness or health personally. I look at my body fat % and cardio fitness for a better indication of how I'm doing.

ragged 10 stone 9. I'm very hourglass and did a lot of sport at the time, both things for which BMI is notoriously unreliable.

Fenella 10st 9lbs at 5'5" gives you a BMI of 24.7. Definitely not obese.

Oh I must have it wrong then because my BMI was 25.4 and I remember being annoyed by it!

25.4 is at the very lower end of overweight, nowhere near obese.

I can't get comfortable with people saying that a BMI of 24.9 is definitely not "overweight" or that 25.1 is barely overweight.

If my BMI was 24.7 I'd be 20 lbs heavier than now, & no way I'd find myself anything but overweight. I don't think many women can carry an extra 20lbs above BMI=21/22 without it being mostly unhelpful flab.

I think BMI provides a good broad guide for most people. For my height there's more than a 2 stone spread of healthy weights for those of different builds etc.

Very few everyday non-athlete people will have overweight/obese BMIs because of muscle, especially women. At the peak of her career Jessica Ennis-Hill's BMI was only 21.6 and she's visibly muscular.

You can definitely be overweight by BMI and yet active and sporty.

I wish clothes weren't so misleading. Stretchy skinnies are the stuff of the Devil. I'm sitting in a pair of 8s right now. My waist measurement is 30-32! How can that be, exactly? .

Good for the ego though. I know, deep down, I'm not slim. I'm ok, but no, not slim.

It is a good guide combined with waist measurement which is an indicator of visceral fat.
When my bmi was 22 I was certainly not slim.

BMI is not perfect for everyone, but it's a good indication for most people.

Fenella, obese is a BMI of 30 or over.

I think bmi can be misleading.

I'm bang in the middle for the "healthy" range for my age height weight, but I can tell you I'm bony, hardly any fat even where it counts (think fried eggs), not heavily muscled. Realistically, my bmi should reflect that. Skinny is not healthy & certainly not fit - which everyone assumes I am because I'm lean.

I've recently joined a gym to get fit & gain some muscle. There's quite a few large-size ladies training and they put me to shame - their stamina is amazing.

I find there is something off about it as well.
dh is 6'2" with big bones (think ex rugby player); wide knee caps, wide elbows, wide shoulders.
he's suppose to be 145-194 based on bmi. at 200 he looks gaunt.

The clinical definition of obese ( BMI over 30) is that your weight is likely to be having an adverse effect on your health - joints, heart rate, effectiveness of insulin in body to mention but a few. This is cumulative so the higher your BMI the greater the effect.
BMI is a rough guide but it's pretty accurate indicator. It goes wrong with rugby player type men - big muscular builds. I think it was originally compiled from weights taken at women's slimming clubs.