fliguana t1_iufbqvg wrote on October 30, 2022 at 10:03 PM

Reply to comment by NakoL1 in is there such a thing as "Big Boned?" by Dr-Logan

Yes, BMI is grossly inaccurate for fitness estimates.

Bodybuilders in show condition have 2-3% body fat, and a BMI of 35+. They are not fat, but have big dense muscles.

BMI may be generally ok to use for young people who do not exercise and don't have physically demanding work or hobbies.

For male members or the high school chess club, high BMI is likely to select overweight kids, but you can also just look, ffs

barefeet69 t1_iugvoy4 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:09 AM

BMI is perfectly fine to use for most individuals who aren't athletes. Because the only instance it isn't a good estimate for obesity, is with high muscle mass. The vast majority of overweight people are not athletes and it's extremely unlikely that they have high muscle mass.

34Ohm t1_iugywpf wrote on October 31, 2022 at 6:57 AM

Ya just like most things, it’s in a normal distribution with outliers. At both ends of the distribution the BMI measurement falls apart and doesn’t apply well (extremely skinny, extremely obese/extremely muscular). But for >95% of the population it’s a good estimate.