B.M.I. Alone Is Not Enough to Assess Health and Weight : Low-Carb War Zone Forum : Active Low-Carber Forums

#1 ^

Thu, Jun-22-23, 19:46

Dodger Dodger is online now

Long-term low-carber

Posts: 8,767

Plan: Paleoish/Keto
Stats: 225/167/175 Male 71.5 inches

BF:18%
Progress: 116%

Location: Longmont, Colorado

B.M.I. Alone Is Not Enough to Assess Health and Weight

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/...weight-ama.html

Quote:

The American Medical Association voted to adopt a new policy on Tuesday encouraging doctors not to rely only on body mass index, a long-used but potentially misleading metric, when assessing weight and health. The policy officially recognizes the “historical harm” of B.M.I. and states that the metric has been used “for racist exclusion.”

Quote:

The association, one of the largest medical groups in the country, will now recommend that doctors not use B.M.I. alone to assess whether a patient is at a healthy weight. The A.M.A. suggested that physicians also consider factors like someone’s visceral fat (the fat stored in the abdominal cavity and around the organs), body adiposity index (a calculation that uses hip circumference and height), the percentage of fat, bone and muscle in one’s body and genetic and metabolic factors, like abnormal blood sugars or thyroid tests.

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#2 ^

Thu, Jun-29-23, 04:36

JEY100 JEY100 is online now

To Good Health!

Posts: 13,444

Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"

BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%

Location: NC

Dr Margaret Ashwell has studied using a Waist to Height ratio for years. She has access to population wide NHS medical records, and has argued that health outcomes based on waist:height are more valid for example, the thin Southeast Asian populations in the UK who can become diabetic while still in a "healthy BMI range". Dr Naiman uses it for the same reason.

BMI works for me, and the clinical studies I am most interested in use BMI, but fully accept that a doctor should adjust for racial disparities in body shape.

Dr Ashwell is now retired but her studies were published in Lancet and she consults at. http://www.ashwell.uk.com/

Duke Health is so enamored with BMI they have exam chairs/table where your weight is automatically taken (no cheats with a nurse entry) and BMI then calculated and added to your electronic medical record down to the hundreds.

My last visit to a Duke facility my BMI was 22.81 kg/m2. :Rolleyes: That .81 was surely critical

But studies on health and longevity do use BMI and breast cancer in post- menopausal women starts to rise at 22.

https://optimisingnutrition.com/opt...alth-longevity/

Last edited by JEY100 : Thu, Jun-29-23 at 05:05.

#3 ^

Thu, Jun-29-23, 06:51

Ms Arielle Ms Arielle is offline

Senior Member

Posts: 19,235

Plan: atkins, carnivore 2023
Stats: 225/224/163 Female 5'8"

BF:
Progress: 2%

Location: Massachusetts

Hurray.

I can still feel the pain of a teen spewing his pain over school.letter that his bmi was too high. Empathetic, i suggested a better option: pinch an inch, as that is what I taught my two teens, ( kids he is friends with).

My boys are very lean with tall frames, light in bone structure.

This teen was built like his dad and brother : very broad heavy build, think a square. Not round, a square. Dad built like a brick. Wide over shoulders, hips. Short.

The build of my teens were the opposite of the other two brothers.

Yes, this teen carried extra weight. But that bmi letter was crushing, not helpful. He needed the tools to change his fat content. Not shaming.

#4 ^

Sat, Jul-01-23, 07:45

GRB5111

Senior Member

Posts: 4,044

Plan: Very LC, Higher Protein
Stats: 227/186/185 Male 6' 0"

BF:
Progress: 98%

Location: Herndon, VA

Those who have increased lean mass make BMI terribly inaccurate. As I continue to work hard increasing my muscle mass to defeat or minimize sarcopenia, waist:height has far more merit for my purposes. My main complaint is the broad reliance on BMI by medical practitioners. For a few, it may work as a rough benchmark, using it as a reference point to track changes. It is far from being the gold standard for a onetime measurement of good health. The decreased reliance on BMI is good news.