Let’s start with the obvious – There are many people who disagree with the BMI.
They consider it to be almost entirely useless as a way to measure… well just about anything to do with the human body.
To understand why so many people have dismissed the BMI we first have to delve into its history.
For starters the name itself is a bit confusing. BMI stands for ‘Body Mass Index’ which is confusing to me since it doesn’t measure mass but rather relative weight. (I guess Relative Weight Index was already taken? )
BMI was the name given to the measurement by Ancel Keyes in his 1974 paper “Indices of relative weight and obesity”.
The measurement was designed in an attempt to remove the relationship between height and weight, since all components of weight (Lean body mass, skeletal mass, organ size and to some degree body fat) all increase with height.
In other words, the […]
Original post by Brad Pilon
Filed under: Fitness