Open wide/why BMIs are complete horse-shit.

**Disclaimer--I'm not a doctor, nor do I claim to be.  I'm a well-versed clinical assistant/student of health and human services, so I just call things I see/know.  Any sort of diet/exercise/wellness endeavor you wish to check out, please check with your physician first to ensure you are healthy enough to partake in. I hold no responsibility for your individual healthcare--AGAIN--I am not a doctor.  Thanks!!**

Hi everyone--how's it going?

Just wanted to begin my first post in this blog kind of like we were in mid-conversation.  Is that cool?  Awesome.

So, I wanted to start off with something that I deal with everyday with my patients.  Something many of us are confronted with when we go to the doctor's office--and in most cases shamed about.

Body Mass Index(BMI)-a key index for relating weight to height.


That's all it takes into account.  Not muscle mass, bone density, not fat percentage.  Seriously.  Someone who is 5'5" and 160 pounds falls into the overweight category--what if this person is a triathlete with tons of muscle volume? Then again, what if they aren't?  Nor does it take into account gender...which is kind of a big deal.   A woman who is 5'9" and 200 pounds looks a lot different from a man who is 5'9" and 200 pounds.

I mean just check this out.

If you came across some of these people on the street, there is no way you'd think 'overweight' or 'morbidly obese.'  People take too much to heart when it comes to this number.  This calculation was something developed by a mathematician (not a doctor) sometime mid-1800s for social and governmental reasons. It's antiquated, missing other vital measurements, and honestly is an easy cop-out for private health/life insurance companies to charge you much higher premiums.

Hence, why using BMI as a standard in determining whether or not an individual is underweight/normal/overweight/obese/morbidly obese is complete horse-shit.

Now, please--don't take this as 'Well, my BMI says I'm overweight--but I'm so not, so I'm not going to exercise and eat a ton of shit."

That's not what I'm saying--but if you're truly trying to live a healthy lifestyle (eating well, exercising, generally aware of your well-being) and your BMI has calculated you as overweight--take it with a grain of salt. Your doctor can check your sugars, cholesterols, thyroid/kidney/liver function tests, blood pressure to see where you stand (an upcoming post on these and their importance) and what you need to be concerned about.

Questions?  Concerns? Comment below or e-mail--and go fork yourselves ;)


~K