– Why do doctors care so much about your BMI when it’s has been proven to be such a flawed metric for ones actual health?
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Doctors don’t about BMI.
They care if you’re over a healthy weight.
BMI is a good simple way to screen for people being overweight.
“Are you this many lbs at this height? That’s probably overweight”
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**SOME** people will be off the BMI scale (rare) but that’s why IF your BMI number is high that lets the doctor know they need to investigate further.
Also, even IF you are not “fat” you are just strong and muscular, so your BMI is high but you are lean, that can still cause health problems. Your heart and lungs don’t get bigger. They have to work harder to run an oversized body. So if you have a high BMI but you are lean and healthy otherwise, that doesn’t mean its “bad” weight, but it does mean there are some things your doctor still needs to pay attention to.
(example, bodybuilders have a high likelihood of sleep apnea, that’s not because of fat. That’s just probably associated with having a big neck)
NOTE: People like to use the “but muscle though” argument against BMI. YES being muscular skews BMI. There is usually no confusion about who those people are. As a guy that’s had a 29-30 BMI lean, when you are high in the chart but its “actually muscle” you LOOK it. You don’t have to explain to your doctor that “oh well this is muscle though”. You should look like an obviously muscular person.
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