Are we doing enough to clear up BMI confusion?
Last week, I was given the chance to go down to London and take part in a photo shoot for the Mail on Sunday. Sadie Nicholson, a freelance journalist wants to help the masses understand how useless Body Mass Index (BMI) is and is running a column showing a number of individuals and how their BMI doesn't really correlate with their state of health.
It really got me thinking, are we doing enough to challenge the validity of BMI?
Personally, I'm average height for a male and I weigh around 80kg. Based on this, I come out at 25.5, which according to the BMI scale, makes me overweight. All this despite me having body-fat of 10%.
This is very common place for active individuals with muscle weighing more than fat and it seems that within the sport and fitness community, the shared opinion is unquestionably against BMI and any sense of validity that it brings. Whilst my predicament of being "overweight" doesn't leave me having sleepless nights, it may well cause someone else considerable stress and concern.
The challenge is, it is still embedded within the syllabus for many courses bringing people into the fitness industry, BMI still proves of great importance in the medical world and the surgical world with often substantial implications based on the score. How can this be if the measure does not take body composition, skeleton shape, muscle mass, physical disfigurement or body fat into consideration?
So, my question is, is there anything else that you can be doing to help educate clients or your circles how BMI simply isn't valid? Interestingly, it doesn't actually tell us anything about Body Mass at all.
It really got me thinking, are we doing enough to challenge the validity of BMI?
This is very common place for active individuals with muscle weighing more than fat and it seems that within the sport and fitness community, the shared opinion is unquestionably against BMI and any sense of validity that it brings. Whilst my predicament of being "overweight" doesn't leave me having sleepless nights, it may well cause someone else considerable stress and concern.
The challenge is, it is still embedded within the syllabus for many courses bringing people into the fitness industry, BMI still proves of great importance in the medical world and the surgical world with often substantial implications based on the score. How can this be if the measure does not take body composition, skeleton shape, muscle mass, physical disfigurement or body fat into consideration?
So, my question is, is there anything else that you can be doing to help educate clients or your circles how BMI simply isn't valid? Interestingly, it doesn't actually tell us anything about Body Mass at all.
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