BMI and bone structure

by faeriedancer

over 1 year ago

Viewed 1235 times

When I do a BMI calculation, my number comes out as "obese". Yes, I am overweight however I am also told my ideal body weight should be between 94 and 119 lbs. This makes me laugh, a lot. I am a medium to large boned women and the smallest I have weighed as an adult is 125, I even had my doctor tell me I looked too thin, my ribs were countable from across the room and I looked "sick" My question to the experts would be: Is bone structure ever considered in BMI? I find that short people often have higher BMIs than taller people with similar looking proportions. This seems odd to me as well. I was trying to get into a pancreatic islet transplant study however your BMI had to be 20. They figured how many islets you needed by your BMI. Well, I was told by my Endocrinologist that I would never qualify for this because "you're short and BMI isn't set up for short people" Well, I guess I am wondering if BMI is really an accurate way to figure health for those of us that are larger boned and short? ; ) Thanks for any information.

Post A Reply

• 

  Viren Swami, Ph.D. YouBeauty Attraction Expert replied over 1 year ago:

  The thing about BMI is that it's a useful proxy for body fat, but the medical establishment have also acknowledged that it has its limitations. For example, BMI cut-offs have varied across time (when the normal/overweight cut-off was lowered in the US from BMI 27.8 to 25 in 1998, it meant about 25 million Americans who were previously 'healthy' were now considered 'overweight') and by culture (Southeast Asian populations, for example, have different cut-offs). It has also been suggested that BMI is less accurate for people who are lean or athletic (their higher muscle mass tends to put them in the overweight category). Neither does it fully account for a person's body frame, as you say. For example, a person could have a small frame and be carrying excess fat, but their BMI might suggest they are healthy; or, a person could have a large frame with very low body fat, but still be classified as 'overweight' according to BMI cut-offs. In order to get a better picture of body fat, medical professionals tends to use a number of measures in addition to BMI, such as skin-fold measurements, bioeletrical impedance analysis, and so on. All of these provide much better indicators of a person's body fat percentage than BMI.

  Quote
• 

  faeriedancer replied over 1 year ago:

  ahh, thanks, that is helpful ; )

  Quote Flag for abuse
• 

  Beth Ricanati, M.D. YouBeauty Wellness Advisor replied over 1 year ago:

  Body Mass Index (BMI) is used as a guideline for obesity measurements. Research has found that it is easy to measure, reliable and correlated with body fat. It is essentially a measure of increased risk for various diseases --- some obvious, like heart disease and diabetes, and some not so obvious, like arthritis, depression and urinary incontinence. We use BMI measurements because they have been shown to be more accurate than weight alone in assessing health risk. However, as with most things, there are exceptions and BMI measurements may overestimate the obesity in individuals who are both overweight and very muscular (think: bodybuilders). Also, overweight and obesity definitions vary by race and the BMI cutoff measurements that we currently use may not always be accurate (for example, current research suggests that BMI may underestimate the risk of obesity in Asians).

  Quote