One of my favorite topics is BMI. Body Mass Index is a simple formula where you divide your weight in KG by your height in meters squared. You can find BMI calculators all over the internet.
As we’ve said before, BMI is a good, rough indicator of normal weight, but it doesn’t take into account things such as muscle index or bone density. There are other measurement tools available, but the insurance, medical and government entities have latched on to the BMI like it’s the end all. The problem is you get things like this article from the Ranger Online. The article delves into the fallacy of the BMI by explaining George Clooney is obese.
This is the fallacy that has become BMI. As the article states:
[bmi] is the best way to statistically determine the body composition of large population samples.
The problem is that BMI is used with too broad of a stroke to be truly effective in a large scale sample. When organizations focus on one specific criteria they miss the intricate parts underneath.
The more interesting part of the article focuses on alternatives to BMI. We’ll cover those alternatives in the coming days.