Over the years here, there have been many complaints about health care parameters that use the BMI; that a waist to height ratio, or waist to hip ratio, or some other weight measure is a better guideline to health than a weird math formula for populations. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/...oryId=106268439

Yet I have never heard of the Smart BMI until today. Mona, a success story at Wheat Belly, mentioned it in her three year anniversary post. https://www.facebook.com/InConnectionHealthierMe/

This is the Smart BMI page: http://www.smartbmicalculator.com/why-sbmic.html. It takes account of gender and age, and the net result (at least for me) is that older women has a bit more leeway. Result gave me a positive boost
Who knows what this means? But it certainly was good to see a number on the low end of a healthy range and under the usual 25 cutoff. Have fun with this!

I checked out this page a while ago. This is what they have to say about eating low carb (I entered it as a diet I had been on in the past):

"With this diet you can achieve a fast weight loss by tricking your body. In the long run this may be unhealthy, as your body will try hard to compensate for the carbohydrate shortage by storing more fat. This will most likely result in a yo-yo effect. Do not return to this diet."

Kind of makes me wonder about the validity of other things they say but I do wish that the bmi wasn't used like the holy grail of health. It's really hard to avoid it since it's everywhere.

Jean

I found that site several months ago as well. That is the "tip" I got about my low carb diet, too. It sure rubbed me the wrong way. I looked all over the place for a way to comment about that and couldn't find any place to send a message. It is bad advice. I like the idea they came up with for a better BMI calculation - but that cliché advice ruined the experience for me.

I was in love with the man, till I read that, Jean.

Thank you all you early adopters for that tip! I share the least amount of personal info can get away with (and outright lie when able to ) so missed that.

Just adding a few more parameters to BMI would make it more sensible. But "carbohydrate shortage"? That's a new one!

Mona's weight loss graph hasn't seemed to suffer from a carbohydrate shortage. She started at 310, just cut out fast food and lost 30 pounds over 3 years. In 2013, she then cut out grains and sugar and with another 3 years on Wheat Belly, she is at 135. The graph is almost straight down until recently staying around her goal weight.

very interesting to hear others report back on the low carb response. I got the same, so I guess that reply is standard for anyone who checks yes to low carb regardless of weight.

This told me I'm slightly underweight (I know this is true and am working with my Dr's on it).

It also advised me to gain 8 pounds to reach optimal health, which is just 5 pounds less than what my Dr's are recommending (so I would say pretty close for a tool that isn't very specific).

CW:127.5
their goal for me: 135
Dr's goal: min of 140

side note- it said at this weight, while not optimal was unlikely to cause health consequences. I disagree- I had ammenhorea for 22 months from it, and had 2 hairline fractures from trivial injuries.....So i would take any tool with a salt shaker of salt. one person's healthy weight is not true for all....

thanks for this post!

Here's another page with several calculators including one that tells you what percentile your weight falls in for people of the same age and gender.

http://halls.md/body-mass-index/bmi.htm

My BMI is now normal and it puts me in the 13th percentile. I also inputted my highest weight and that put me in the 97th percentile. I think that's called success.

Jean

At my current weight, the calculator puts me in the 9th percentile. I find that a little hard to believe that it's so low now.

When I put in my goal weight, it drops to the 5th percentile. Hmmmmmmmmm

Since we are the same height, I find it interesting that my previous doc wanted me to GAIN weight up to about 165 (she thought I was malnourished and wanted my BMI at 25 - it was 22 at the time). I said "no way" and found a new doc who is more enlightened. This doc agrees with yours that 140 is about right. I set my goal as 139, just because I'd like to be in the 130's for the first time since I was about 11......

Interesting. According to this, I'm in the 21st percentile. My BMI of 23.4 is just under the top of the standard BMI range (25-19) and in the middle (35) of the Smart BMI range of 30-40. My weight is in the middle of the medical recs (164-125). At 5'8", I think 125 is too little!

From the Halls page, my ideal weight is supposedly 144. That seems about right as I know I would look better if I lost about 10 more lbs.

I loved this from the Smart BMI page:

Weight management has been a problem for me since I was in 2nd grade!

Interesting, like others, my claim to low carb keto produced the following comments:

"Nutrition
Think over your diet. Eat a variety of foods that you like, optimally including five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Avoid eating too sweet, too fat and too much.

Your current low-carb diet

With this diet you can achieve a fast weight loss by tricking your body. In the long run this may be unhealthy, as your body will try hard to compensate for the carbohydrate shortage by storing more fat. Beware of the yo-yo effect. If you want to stop dieting, do it step by step."

Hmmmm. It also says my goal weight is too low, and I'm currently in my optimal weight range. I feel that way, but traditional BMI has always had a different opinion. Hey, with 5 servings of fruit per day, I can easily put on a few more pounds! I just cant' eat that stuff and that much anymore.

My vLCHF diet is what eliminated yo-yo dieting after 35 yrs on low cal, low fat, fruity grainy diets.