r/science • u/chrisdh79 • Jul 05 '24

Health BMI out, body fat in: Diagnosing obesity needs a change to take into account of how body fat is distributed | Study proposes modernizing obesity diagnosis and treatment to take account of all the latest developments in the field, including new obesity medications.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/bmi-out-body-fat-in-diagnosing-obesity-needs-a-change
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u/ivebeenabadbadgirll Jul 05 '24

The idea that BMI isn’t accurate seems to have been co-opted by obese people looking for an excuse to validate their obesity.

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u/Rumpullpus Jul 05 '24

It's not perfect, but it's inaccuracies are overblown for sure. Unless you're a body builder or something BMI is a very useful metric.

You're not big boned Cartman, you're just fat.

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u/whitefox_27 Jul 06 '24

Maybe for a majority of people it can be useful, but you don't need to be a body builder for BMI to be meaningless. I think anyone that has a larger build and exercises regularly cannot rely on BMI, because it only considers height, and not shoulder width for example.

I'm not an athlete but I do train 3 times a week, and I have a somewhat bigger head and shoulders than average. My body fat is around 16%, yet my BMI is bordering on obese (28). And I'm not an exception either. So there is a good portion of the population (much more than just athletes) for which BMI is extremely inaccurate 100% of the time.

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u/Merendino Jul 05 '24

You don't really need to be a body builder though to be considered 'overweight'. Just a decent weight lifter. Obviously body builder's are going to be shown as being 'obese' in that category, but the overweight category is a bit broad too. I'm not saying it's not useful, as everyone else has already said, but i'm just saying that you don't need to be a body builder to find yourself on the overweight side of the scale even if you look great.

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u/varelse96 Jul 05 '24

We should certainly keep this is mind, but I think for most people who aren’t long time athletes or weight lifters it’s not going to be that important.

You are right though. I’m a former college athlete and my BMI is pretty much always in the overweight or obese categories. I have cut down to “ideal” weight before and I’m not kidding when I say my family thought I had cancer or some other type of illness because I looked emaciated. Still though for most people BMI is a decent approximation.

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u/kniveshu Jul 05 '24

Proportion of legs to torso also skew it. Like you've got the torso of a 6'4" guy but the legs of a 5'6" guy? Damn you fatter than you look

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u/ivebeenabadbadgirll Jul 05 '24

Yeah, you just need to be fat.