BMI fail

I hate BMI. It’s the reason why I was called “obese” in my 2008 annual HMO check-up even after going through six months of regular exercise and controlled dieting (which resulted in losing over 20 pounds of fat on my body).

I found a link yesterday about the flaws of using BMI as a gauge for a person’s fitness. While I have already mentioned why BMI is inferior to Body Fat Percentage in a past post, this article sheds light on why the former’s use is more prevalent than the latter.

Americans keep putting on the pounds — at least according to a report released this week from the Trust for America’s Health. The study found that nearly two-thirds of states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent.

But you may want to take those findings — and your next meal — with a grain of salt, because they’re based on a calculation called the body mass index, or BMI.

As the Weekend Edition math guy, I spoke to Scott Simon and told him the body mass index fails on 10 grounds:

Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus [from NPR]

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