Body Mass Index, or BMI for short, is a simple calculation — based on your height and weight — used to determine if you are overweight. It has its flaws, but overall, is it a good measurement for body weight? My answer is maybe, maybe not.
First the flaws. It doesn’t take gender, age, or muscle/bone density into account. A fit, but very muscular person could register as overweight, or even obese. Likewise a person with low densities could have lots of dangerous visceral fat, yet still register as normal. These flaws tend to make people dismiss the BMI as nothing more than a statistic used to calculate insurance premiums.
I consider myself has having denser than average bones and/or muscles. In fact I wear the same size clothes as men who weigh 10-20 pounds less than me. Even though I’ll always weigh-in a little on the high side of BMI, I still say give it a chance.
If nothing else, it gives you something to think about. I’m thoroughly convinced that our eyes don’t see our bodies correctly in the mirror and sometimes an objective tool like BMI can help us rethink our goals.
When I started this journey, I was obese according to BMI. My original goal was to get back to the weight that I considered normal for me, the weight I had been most of my adult life. But even that weight was still overweight according to BMI. Looking back at pictures now, I can clearly see that that weight was not normal for me, and my new weight (now registering as normal according to BMI) feels more comfortable. Were it not for BMI, I would still be somewhat overweight.
So I say don’t dismiss BMI, but you don’t have to follow it religiously either. In the end, the only way to know your ideal weight is to see what feels best to you. I like to tell people to set small goals, 5 or 10 pounds at a time, and reassess your goals at that time. You’ll know when you reach your ideal weight.
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