I have seen on several websites that BMI is not an accurate or reliable way of knowing if someone is healthy. Why is this information suddenly inaccurate?
In: Biology
BMI, for most people, IS a good indicator of health.
The vast vast majority of people don’t have enough muscle mass to really change their BMI significantly.
For 99.9% of people who have an extremely high BMI (over 40), it is a great indicator that they are/will have significant health issues.
The problem is that obesity isn’t a 1-to-1 indicator that someone has health problems at the moment. Just because someone is obese doesn’t mean that currently they are suffering. It’s just like smoking. Not all smokers have health issues, it just highly increases the chances.
There are obviously much more accurate indicators of health than just BMI, but because of its accessibility, it’s a great tool for health professionals.
BMI should be used as a starting point to check accurate health measurements. But in general, people with high BMI are at a increased risk for lots of diseases and it is a very good risk factor for them.
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