The Death of BMI?

Comment

We covered BMI (body mass index) before in BMI Fixed?

However, the debate on how useful BMI is to measure someone’s health still continues. Does BMI really serve any purpose in this modern day and age? Obesity research is relying on the more trustworthy and more relevant body composition measurement (lean body mass vs fat) to assess people’s health related to their weight.

The theory behind BMI is to calculate weight as an abstract figure, disjointed from height (so you can compare the weight of short and tall people). BMI does not consider elements such as gender and age – muscle mass varies greatly from the young to the elderly, from women to men.

Each organ in the body has a specific weight – athletes have a higher lung capacity and larger muscles for example so their body weight will be higher than average. This means that in the BMI chart they get classified as “obese”.

The metabolic balance of each body is different. Metabolic balance is defined in Mosby’s Medical Dictionary as “an equilibrium between the intake of nutrients and their eventual loss through absorption or excretion. In a positive balance the intake of a nutrient exceeds its loss”.

BMI is not able to identify whether someone has the dangerous visceral fat that is related to the risk of developing cardio-vascular diseases and diabetes.

Here at WeightMatters we offer metabolic balance – read more about metabolic balance and our practitioner Sarah.

To book your metabolic balance consultation please email info@weightmatters.co.uk

Source:

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/manfred-j-mueller-shows-why-the-body-mass-index-is-essentially-meaningless-for-obesity-researchers