I was reading an article today online from The New Yorker about why Americans are so fat. I definitely agree that the general population is large and getting larger and many people can be considered obese, however, in the second paragraph they “roughly define” obesity as being measured by a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 27 or greater.

This is about as helpful as diagnosing personality disorders with the use of horoscopes! The BMI charts are worthless as they don’t take body composition (percentage of fat, muscle, bone, water-weight, etc) into account in any way, and instead just rely on a height vs weight divisor.

There are no shortage of useless algorithms out there, but my biggest problem with this particular one comes from it’s use in the media, the government, and insurance companies.

Did you know that you can be denied insurance coverage based solely on your BMI? My workout partner is in no way obese. He is a solid block of muscle at 5′10″ and 225 lbs. However, recently he was denied life insurance solely on his BMI.

Then there are the government agencies that still push this index around like it could have any sense of worth. But what do you expect from governmental bureaucracy?

The one that confuses me the most is that medical doctors would even consider using such an antiquated idea that a persons physical health could be even remotely determined by a simple division problem, let alone the health of your heart or as an indicator of your prevalence for heart disease.

So what can you do with this information? Like with anything, knowledge is power. Knowing that your doctor, or insurance company, or whomever might be using this algorithm to determine your health status, means that you should know your BMI and know if you fall within a range that may cause them concern. I personally am 26.3 which is considered just under obese, while in truth I am more like a sculpted Greek god… (kidding), but I am in very good shape and in no way obese. So knowing that, I have the knowledge to question that statistic and provide evidence of my fitness. I can ask an insurance company if they will accept another indicator such as a body fat measurement, etc.

So figure out what your BMI is, so you can be forewarned, and learn why it really doesn’t mean a thing… then you’ll be in a place of knowledge when you hear about it again.

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