BMI: Different Standards for Men and Women? (muscle, running, weights)
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No, the BMI calculator has enough issues as is it. My BMI is 27.2 and there's no way that I'm overweight.
That's sort of my point. Most NFL runningbacks would be considered obese when no reasonable person would think of those people as being close to "fat." In fact, some of those guys would be considered an archetype of masculinity. However, a 5'2, 165 lb woman would be "unhealthy" by any standard since women carry more body fat than men.
BMI is useless in general for individuals. Why some doctors and other folks insist on using it for that is beyond me.
BMI is very useful for its intended purpose -- which is over populations as a whole. But individuals vary too much for such a crude measure to be useful.
For example -- at 6' tall and 218lbs, it considers me "obese." While I still have about 20lbs to go to meet my goal weight, that goal weight will likely put me at 10-12% bodyfat. At that weight, the BMI would still call me overweight. I'm a rather muscular guy. By no accounts am I anything approaching "obese."
That's sort of my point. Most NFL runningbacks would be considered obese when no reasonable person would think of those people as being close to "fat." In fact, some of those guys would be considered an archetype of masculinity. However, a 5'2, 165 lb woman would be "unhealthy" by any standard since women carry more body fat than men.
Most people recognize that BMI, as a singular datapoint, is relatively useless and vague in the absence of other information. It is basically useful for sedentary adults; it doesn't take into account if one is an athlete, elderly, infirm etc. No one is going to look at someone that takes care of themselves and weight trains as being overweight.
It is useful for comparing POPULATIONS and health trends. I.E, one could surmise that if the BMI of the average New Yorker, is lower than the BMI of the average Milwaukee citizen, and the average NY'er is longer lived and has less hypertension and lower LDL cholesterol, that the average New Yorker is skinnier and healthier. That is an example with no basis on actual data and by no means a judgement about people from New York or Wisconsin.
BMI is kind of the only option in the absence of calipers or a body-pod type thing to determine whether or not one is HWP. Getting your actual body fat percentage will tell YOU whether or nor you are healthy.
BMI really is useless. Dont know why people insist of using it as a tool.
What should be used instead is body fat % via water displacement or caliper readings. BMI is flat out baloney, worthless, useless, crap.
I agree to an extent. But under what scenario could a woman who has a BMI above 30 possibly be healthy? Even Serena Williams, if we assumed she weighs 195 lbs (the internet says she's 165...doubt it), would only have a BMI of 28.8 (not obese). And it's hard to imagine the average woman being more muscular and fit than she is.
Most people recognize that BMI, as a singular datapoint, is relatively useless and vague in the absence of other information. It is basically useful for sedentary adults; it doesn't take into account if one is an athlete, elderly, infirm etc. No one is going to look at someone that takes care of themselves and weight trains as being overweight.
And I think that's true for men. Women, I'm not sure about.
A 5'5 woman who weighs 180 pounds has a BMI of 30, which makes her obese. I'm having a time hard imagining how a woman could be physically fit in that scenario. Laila Ali, who's 5'10 and fought as a super middleweight (160 to 168 lbs), never came close to that. She said she gained 35 pounds during pregnancy, which still would not have put her over the obesity threshold.
I agree to an extent. But under what scenario could a woman who has a BMI above 30 possibly be healthy? Even Serena Williams, if we assumed she weighs 195 lbs (the internet says she's 165...doubt it), would only have a BMI of 28.8 (not obese). And it's hard to imagine the average woman being more muscular and fit than she is.
Anowa Adjah is a 5'10", 200 pound fitness model. She looks a little bigger than Serena though. Her BMI is 28.7. She weights more than I do.
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