BMI = Bye Bye?

I think that is not only a far easier way to calculate but also far more accurate ... at least with the medical information they are giving out today, but then again that could always change tomorrow. Right now, medical professionals say that belly fat is far more dangerous than fat on other areas of your body, because it is an indication that you are at a much higher risk for a lot of diseases. Therefore, taking the belly measurement would be a better indicator of potential health risks than overall weight, especially if a person carries all the extra weight in the belly, for example.

I seem to remember that when they first started talking about body mass index that they would see how much fat they could pinch on your side with a calipers. Might as well re-invent it again.

So far, I have no problems with the use of the BMI, maybe because I'm not an athlete or overweight. I do see problems using the second gauge though. Our height is more or less fixed, but our weight may vary. What I'm trying to say is that if we wait until our waistline is more than half of our height, we are in deep trouble because every inch added to our waistline means much more than just that. It means that fats has accumulated not only at your waistline but all over your body. So I feel it's dangerous to only use that waistline measurement. Your discussion made me check whether my waistline was more than half of my height. Thus far, it's good. But I'm already very conscious about my weight and health. I don't think I want to wait for my waistline to be more than my height before I act. I'm trying to be more healthy and exercise to keep my weight down.

I've heard lots of bad things about BMI being inaccurate to health as well. The only problem with this new system is that it won't tell you when you're underweight. Or at least, if it does you didn't mention it and I haven't bothered to go looking for the answer yet. Personally, I've been very thin my entire life and have never worried about being overweight.

Some says that BMI is not that accurate of telling if a person is obese or not. Let say, if you are thin but lean enough you might have a heavier weight resulting so somewhat obese.

Hi, I have cellphone with a BMI calculator using height and weight as the variables. As I see it, a person should be on the proper weight and height ration to be considered fat (obese),just right or thin. For example, a person weighing 75 kg with a height of 1.6 meter can be considered fat with a BMI of 29.3. Making some adjustments given the same height, the weight should go down to 60 kg giving a BMI of 23.44 which falls on the normal side. I can't figure out the formula here but I consider such weight too low for normal operations.

I think that BMI is actually quite a good measurement to use. It gives people the indication of whether they're a healthy weight or not, and this is good because it means that people know when they have to lose weight and when they are healthy for their height. The only time that BMI doesn't work properly is if an individual has a high muscle mass, as they will be heavier than those who have a high fat mass but they would be healthier. Those people should be easy to spot though, as it should be clear whether they are coming back as overweight because of fat or muscle.

BMI is inaccurate? God, we did that on our class last semester since I have a HealthCare subjects. I tried to solve mine and the result is underweight. I can't even believe it. Thanks to the responses below that gave me comfort by saying it's inaccurate.LoL

BMI is only a rough gauge for commoners without much health knowledge to estimate their current health status. It can never be accurate due to the fact that many things contribute to your health and to fully know your health status, you have to consider many different factors which is not easy for most of us. A guy with BMI 30 can be considered obese and unhealthy but in actual fact that is not necessary the case if you read about the latest research that states that you can be fat and healthy at the same time. But the chance of this is low which means that usually obese people are unhealthy in proportion as compared to people with normal size. Similarly, being slim or normal size does not indicate you are totally healthy. Despite that, BMI is still useful for its ease of calculation to so called know your current health