I haven’t read all of your scientific articles yet. However, as a health professional, I am always told to measure people’s BMI, using a height vs weight ratio. If someone’s BMI puts them in the ‘obese’ category, I am supposed to give weight loss advice. If someone is morbidly obese, I am supposed to stress the affects that being morbidly obese may have on the body - hypertension, risk of myocardial infarction, risk of CVA or TIA, risk of developing type two diabetes and the consequent complications of that if not properly controlled (diabetic retinopathy, diabetic neuropathy and diabetic nephropathy). Blah, blah, blah!
However, I have major issues with BMI’s and how they are measured.
1. Apparently the BMI as a means of measuring a body size was invented to grade the survivors of the nazi concentration camps. Therefore, it concentrated on the grading of people being underweight and not overweight.
2. Someone who is fit and well muscled with no signs of a paunch may, on the BMI calculations, be classed as being overweight or even obese. This is complete rubbish! Muscle weighs more than fat! There is a way of calculating BMI using callipers to measure skin thicknesses, which takes muscle into account, however, most healthcare professionals are not taught how to use this method.
3. I prefer to use ‘common sense’ instead of BMI. For instance, you have two people of the same height and build. However, both of them are out of proportion. The first one has long legs and a short body. The second one has short legs and a long body. Of course, the second one is going to weight more because a body weighs more than legs do!
If you have someone who has a large head size, they are going to weigh more than someone with a smaller head because a bigger skull is going to weigh more (not including the tissue inside).
4. Several years ago, I was classed as being morbidly obese. I lost 5 stones. A significant weight loss, but I was still classed as morbidly obese and still had a significant amount of weight to lose just to get into the orange zone from the red zone. That’s hardly encouraging.
I have since put all five stones back on and I am still in tge morbidly obese category.
5 years