BMI isn’t a valid indicator of health for (young) people with lots of muscle mass from weight training (e.g., competitive athletes). Those people are a relatively small group in society, however. BMI is a somewhat valid indicator of health for most members of society, which makes it a reasonable population health metric. It has its drawbacks and there’s plenty of nuances to argue about but it’s very easy to use, and that handiness earns it its popularity
BMI is a somewhat valid indicator of health for most members of society, which makes it a reasonable population health metric.
That’s a half truth to some extent. Muscle mass isn’t the only thing that fumbles the BMI math. The calculation is also notoriously less useful for women in general, and for black/latino women specifically even more misrepresentative. And even outside those groups BMI isn’t really a “reasonable” health metric by today’s standards. But it ins’t totally useless either, so I guess it depends on what we mean with “reasonable”.
BMI isn’t a valid indicator of health for (young) people with lots of muscle mass from weight training (e.g., competitive athletes). Those people are a relatively small group in society, however. BMI is a somewhat valid indicator of health for most members of society, which makes it a reasonable population health metric. It has its drawbacks and there’s plenty of nuances to argue about but it’s very easy to use, and that handiness earns it its popularity
That’s a half truth to some extent. Muscle mass isn’t the only thing that fumbles the BMI math. The calculation is also notoriously less useful for women in general, and for black/latino women specifically even more misrepresentative. And even outside those groups BMI isn’t really a “reasonable” health metric by today’s standards. But it ins’t totally useless either, so I guess it depends on what we mean with “reasonable”.
and its also not properly weighted for height. at 6’5", I can be unhealthily thin and shown as 'nearly overweight"