Health trolls LOVE to bring up the BMI as a marker of health, like it's the end-all-be-all to distinguishing who among us is healthy and who isn't.
But here's the issue with BMI: It's overly simplistic. It asks for two measurements — height and weight — and then assigns you a number based on what you put in. If you're 18.5-24.9, you're "healthy." If you're 25 to 29.9, you're overweight. Anything under 18 is underweight, and anything over 30 is obese.
Sounds way too easy, right?
According to many doctors, BMI is actually BS.
According to a 2013 meta-analysis that included nearly 3 million people, people with overweight BMIs were 6% less likely to die in a given year than people with normal BMIs.
Additionally, the threshold for an overweight BMI was LOWERED in 1998 from a 27.8 to 25 to match international guidelines, which made 29 million Americans overweight according to BMI standards. What makes that so messed up is that the organization behind the guidelines is the International Obesity Task Force, whose founders are — wait for it — weight-loss drug manufacturers.
Basically, BMI is arbitrary. Doctors agree, scientists agree, the guy who INVENTED BMI agrees.
Besides, BMI doesn't take things like muscle mass into account.
According to this photo's caption, the woman in the above photo has a BMI that can be classified as overweight.
Yeah, that doesn't look quite right to us.
BTW, weight and health aren't the same thing.
Health looks different on every body. Two people can be the exact same height and weight with an identical BMI, and one of them could be in a totally different place health-wise than the other.
Even celebrities think it's bullshit.
Pink posted a photo of herself working out to prove just how meaningless BMI really is.
"Would you believe I'm 160 pounds and 5'3"? By 'regular standards' that makes me obese. I know I'm not at my goal or anywhere near it after baby two, but dammit I don't feel obese. The only thing I'm feeling is myself," she said in the caption.
Sorry, but giving birth to another human being (in Pink's case, for the second time) is way more of an accomplishment than being able to say your BMI is 21.
Instead of relying on an arbitrary number to indicate your health, rely on other factors.
Instead of just looking at a number that doesn't even measure body fat, look at factors like diet, exercise, and lifestyle. Things like smoking, alcohol intake, and a poor diet are a much better barometer of health than an archaic number many doctors and fitness professionals only rely on because it's fast and easy.
