More Evidence That BMI Is Not a Good Indicator of Health
We already knew that BMI is not a great indicator of whether a person is fat or not , but now research confirms that it is not the best indicator of health either.
BMI, or Body Mass Index, is popular because it is easy to measure. Take your height and weight, plug them into a calculator, and get the number that doctors and insurers use to measure your health. If you’ve ever read the headlines about research on “obesity,” they almost never talk about how much fat the subjects had on their bodies: it’s all about BMI . It is true that obese people generally have a higher BMI, and that people with a higher BMI are more likely to have higher insulin resistance, higher blood pressure, and other risk factors for heart disease and metabolic disorders .
But when researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles compared the BMIs of over 40,000 people with their blood pressure, triglycerides , cholesterol , blood glucose , insulin resistance, and C-reactive protein levels , they found that BMI did not coincide as often with these health indicators. as you would think. Half of the people in the overweight category (BMI 25-29) passed these tests. Meanwhile, 30% of people with a normal BMI were considered unhealthy.
So just because you’re thin doesn’t mean you’re off the hook; and if you are fat, you may well be healthy . The researcher who conducted the study, A. Janet Tomiyama, told Medical News Today that it is unfair that employer wellness programs can charge higher amounts for people with high BMIs , stating that “employers, politicians and insurance companies should focus on real health outcomes.” …
Misclassification of Cardiometabolic Health Using Body Mass Index Categories in NHANES 2005–2012 | International Journal of Obesity via Health News Today