why is the BMI cutoff for being overweight 23 for Asians instead of 25 for everyone else?
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I’m going to guess that it’s related to the average bone structure of Asian people being smaller than other ethnicities.
The body mass index is a flawed metric when it comes to judging if you’re over/under weight. It gives a general approximation but the truth is that your optimal weight has a lot to do with your bone structure as well as your height.
Most military organizations don’t go by solely BMI any more because of this. There are actually 3 categories of bone size(that I know of) small , medium, and large bone structures. (Yes big boned is a real thing).Basically you take the measurement of the diameter of your wrist and match it up to the three categories I mentioned above and then factor in your height and weight to get a more accurate picture of where you fall in terms of optimal weight.
Here is the chart for wrist size to determine your bone structure:
https://www.freedieting.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Wrist-Measurements-for-Medium-Frame.jpg
And here is a chart for weight after you know your frame size:
https://www.freedieting.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/height-weight-chartgif-b302c4284cb35b761.gif
As you can see from that second chart your optimal weight can vary quite a bit based on your bone structure.
So what I’m trying to say is that BMI is a flawed system and it’s known to be flawed. It’s a good approximation but isn’t as accurate as what I mentioned above.
I’d surmise that because of the average frame size of Asians being smaller than other ethnicities and the flawed nature of the Body mass index the change from 25 to 23 is an attempt to correct this flaw.
I also wasn’t aware of this either. Japan’s ministry of health and labor welfare also cites 25 as the threshold for overweight.
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