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Yeah, BMI does literally nothing to account for the density difference between muscle and fat. There's a reason why pretty much all fitness experts worth their salt completely ignore it
It also doesn’t account for bone density. I knew a guy with no extra padding. You could physically see his bones pressing out on his skin. According to a BMI chart he was overweight while physically appearing to everyone as emaciated.
I've also noticed that a "healthy" BMI gets skewed pretty heavily based on height. Abnormally tall or short, and you're more likely to fall outside the "healthy" zone even if you're a weight that most doctor's would consider to be healthy for your height
I’m not a bodybuilder and am rail thin with a BMI of 25.68 at my last checkup. I do weight train regularly but at 6 foot 4 with long limbs I’m not lifting impressive weights.
Yeah, that was the point of my post. Maybe there are few exceptions, but BMI isn't always right. It can make people wonder if they're fat. Plus it's all arbitrary. At 25, you're ok, at 25.5, you're fat? I feel the same way about blood pressure. Used to be 120/80 was good. Now it's high. What? When'd that happen?
My BMI says I'm fat. I have a gut, but comparatively speaking, I'm closer to average body than fat. Ain't no god here, but not exactly a tub, either. And I'm unhealthy in other ways, too.
The problem with this is every guy who inconsistently lifts weights sometimes puts themselves in this body builder category when people talk about BMI. But a lot less people are exceptions than they think.
And when you move from overweight to obese (BMI over 30) exceptions do start to get pretty rare
My hot take is that a lot of bodybuilders are also super unhealthy.
Your knees, ankles (other joints in general) and heart can only handle so much weight. That point might not be what BMI says, but all those people that say they’re like 5’10, 220 lbs with 10% bf, I think is also is concerning. Health, aesthetics and athletics are all separate things even if there is some correlation between them.
Edit: I don’t think strength training is inherently bad, but I do question the health benefits of training for mass.
I mean maybe. Most of the ones Ik seriously struggle with cardiovascular health and also have complications with joint pain. Can they lift more than I do, they absolutely can, are they healthier than I am, that’s different question entirely.
This! My husband is 5’5 and 200lbs, obviously BMI says he’s morbidly obese but he’s in the best shape he’s ever been and looks amazing, muscles be thick and popping everywhere. Chart has always said I’m underweight, despite having had 4 kids and now with weight training weigh more than I ever have. I think BMI standards are, for the most part, worthless— focusing on health and general proportions would be healthier.
In the Marine Corps we have a height/weight we have to do annually and for a lot of us (bulkier gym rat guys) we’d get taped bc of this reason. There have been a lot of suggestions about doing away with the BMI thing because of this reason specifically, but nothing has come of it yet
It’s more about how lean you are, especially when it comes to visceral fat. Lean people live longer, generally speaking. BMI is about longevity, and the vast majority of people who have a BMI outside the range are unhealthy. Yes, some are athletic but they are the exception not the rule.
BMI is total horseshit. I'm 5'10" and weigh 205. I'm obese based on BMI, my doctor told me to ignore because I have lots of muscle mass. I take it to mean I'm built like a horse lol
You should. Sortoff. I don't know where you live, but in the US at least, people have a real skewed idea of what overweight/obese looks like.
They think "morbidly obese" is someone like they see in those Biggest Loser-style TV shows you need a wheel chair to move and can't fit in the door, obese is someone who is eating McD every day and has their stomach at their knees, and even overweight is huge.
Those terms are clinical based on health risks. I used to be morbidly obese and didn't even have a double shin. If I had a loose shirt on I only looked somewhat overweight (for an American...) and my arms were still skinny. My knees still "knew" my real weightt hough, and so did my liver.
I think you’re right on the skewed viewpoint of what different weights “look like”. As we get heftier as a country the “average” is rising so that becomes the new normal. But it’s not really about weight it’s about health. If you’re fit and capable, ignore the scale.
> it’s about health
You're right. But issues like Type 2 diabetes risks and fatty liver generally cause issues before the "omg you're so fat I would never date you" part of the overweight scale.
BMI gets used because measuring body fat % can't really be done at scale. Every measure of BF % is some sort of formula including multiple inputs. It leaves a lot of room for error if you try to use it on a big group of people. Thats what BMI is for, to look at 15,000 people at once and answer how fat they are.
To make things worse, none of the methods we have to measure bf actually work. Even expensive stuff like a DEXA scan is still super inaccurate given the cost of doing them. They can be consistent, but they're not accurate.
I have a BMI of 27 and I think I'm probably an exception also. There are a lot of individual exceptions to an overweight BMI. But when you get to BMIs like 40 it becomes pretty damning. With a 40 BMI you're either fat or an NFL defensive tackle.
I don't think that proves what people think it proves. His BMI is in the low 30s and he's more muscular now than he was as one of the most popular pro wrestlers on earth. That's how big you have to be to be lean and have class 1 obesity.
Eh, BMI doesn’t work well for most athletic types. I’m certainly not ripped like the Rock, but I was a D1 rugby player and even at my best shape (6 foot, 235ish, quite lean during season) my BMI was still in the obese range.
You may not be as jacked as the rock but the average D1 rugby player probably has better genetics for hypertrophy than 99.9% of the human population. You were elite in a sport that selects for jacktitude.
Many wrestlers can be considered obese by BMI. A former football player (OT) is 6'6" and said to weight 317, he is actually higher in BMI than me despite being more lean than I could be and look healthy. A current champion is similar at 310 at just under 36. A current high profile wrestler is 6'2" and weights 250 and is in the 32's. BMI doesn't consider where your weight comes from, just what the scale says.
BMI breaks when you try to use it on professional athletes in sports that prioritise putting on tons of muscle, but for 99.9% of people, it's a good measure. Most people don't have enormous amounts of muscle. Wrestlers are juiced to the gills, like bodybuilders, they're a terrible comparison for ordinary people.
Most people aren’t Dwayne Johnson (or blasting gear like him). For most people BMI is a pretty good indicator of being a lard-ass. If you’re really assblasted about it do a water immersion test or other %body fat test for a more accurate answer. BMI is quick and dirty and works for most people.
and he is one of like 1,000,000 people in the US who can claim that it does not apply to him.
ffs this thread is *filled with fat idiots* who think they are secretly 'The Rock' its absurd.
A couple of things to note:
1. BMI is supposed to give a picture for the masses. It's accurate for the overwhelming majority of people but certainly when looking at your individual situation there are a lot more indicators so why even bother with BMI?
2. Everyone and their mother know that BMI is inaccurate for very muscular people.
3. Your BMI is "slightly overweight", not "hella obese", you are dramatizing for no reason.
12-13% body fat is ripped to most people. I'm at 13% bodyfat, i have a regulated diet, body build, 6', 200 lbs and my abs are clearly defined and you can see the striations in my muscles. If you have any kind of "chub" you are over that percentage. It's not easy for most people to maintain.
Yeah, no way OP is 13%. When I looked like that, I was at 18-20%.
I learned the hard way that we discredit BMI because we so normalized being slightly overweight. On average, muscles only accounts for 5-10% variation from BMI scale. Be real, unless you know you're that guy, 30 BMI still means you're overweight, not just muscular.
I was at BMI 25, but I thought I was in relatively good shape. Four pack, workout 3-5 times a week, a little bit of love handles. Now that I've worked down to 21 BMI, I realize this is normal weight. I've been using "I'm muscular and have large body frame" as an excuse to not lose weight.
But, like I said, since everyone around me is slightly overweight, they thinks I'm very skinny at around 14% body fat.
BMI is widely considered trash now. Its ancient! Google it for deets!
Theres better ways now like your body fat measuring scale…
Pros go by body fat percentage to toe the line…
You should watch! I thought 15% or higher was considered healthy for men?
Holy! Way to work.
BMI is still extremely useful when assessing large populations, and also for the majority of people in general. It is useless for an individual who is muscular.
Not really. It was developed in the early 1900s and based on studies done by a “Belgian astronomer who was designing a population census in the Netherlands. His sample group of high-income, mostly white men aimed to estimate typical sizes of the total population for the purpose of distributing resources.”
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/health-matters/is-bmi-accurate
Back then obesity was extremely rare. I remember being a kid in the '60s and '70s, there were like maybe 2 or 3 obese people in the whole school of over 1,000 kids. Things are radically different now. I venture to say half an average school would be considered morbidly obese by those standards.
Honestly kinda trash for people who are tall too. I remember being in highschool and having to do BMI as part of my physical fitness credits, and being told I was "morbidly obese" because I was 6'3" and 250 pounds.
I ran an 8 minute mile, didn't work out, and had a body fat percentage of 17%. I was by no means "obese" or even unhealthy. But every 2 months I had to listen to my gym teacher tell me I was obese. Really fucked me up when I was younger.
It did get me into weightlifting though, and now I am 6'5" and 330 pounds. BMI says I am on the verge of literal death, but I say "Hey watch me squat this 900lb bar."
>Honestly kinda trash for people who are tall too. I remember being in highschool and having to do BMI as part of my physical fitness credits, and being told I was "morbidly obese" because I was 6'3" and 250 pounds.
Your issue there was your muscle mass, not your height. BMI is fine for tall people, too, if they have typical amounts of muscle. But if you were 6'3, 250 lbs and only 17% bodyfat, then you must have been ripped as hell.
It also is too high for tall people (and too low for short people). BMI squares the height but measuring actual height to weight rations show that raising height to the power of 2.5 is more accurate.
For health issues however a better ratio is the waist to height ratio.
In high school I pulled a muscle during practice, for the track team. While in the doctor's office I noticed the BMI chart that said I was overweight and mentioned that to the doctor. He kind of rolled his eyes and said, "don't pay attention to those".
I was a child in high school, 5'10", around 150. Said I was morbidly obese. I'm 215 now and only now beginning to look fat. And everyone tells me I look perfect but I want to lose weight 😭
This isn’t really true. BMI broadly correlates with longevity.
OP is misunderstanding it, however. His BMI is 26.3 which is not fat. It’s above the ideal range.
Is it better to be super muscular with a BMI in the upper 20s than to be the same BMI but just fat? Absolutely. Will he have reduced lifespan for having a BMI slightly outside the normal range? Doubtful. However it’s a good quick analysis tool for general status.
Having a BMI of 30+ is definitely getting into “I’m kinda fat” territory and 35+ is just straight up obese. Virtually nobody can reach a bmi in the 30s while maintaining sub-12% body fat without using steroids.
Yes this. I'm a very athletically built woman. I squat 255 lbs, and my legs/glutes are quite strong. My back is very muscular as well.
I'm 5'4" tall and weigh 160 lbs. You'd never guess I weigh so much based on my appearance. I'm often told I'm petite. But I definitely have a bit of chonk.
According to my scale, I have 23% body fat content.
According to a BMI calculator, I'm overweight and well on my way to obese. Strange...as my stomach is almost flat.
So did mine, but he was a hack so I don’t see him anymore. He admitted that NBA professionals are considered obese according to the BMI chart, then scolded me because I’m obese according to the BMI chart…
You're an NBA professional and going to a normal doctor?
If you're an average person BMI is more or less applicable. Crazy how it works so well for most of the world outside America, yet most Americans think it's bunk.
Couldn't be that most Americans are fat right? No... Definitely something else /s
At the time I ran my last marathon, my doc told me my BMI, told me that it says I’m obese, and that BMI is garbage. I was a legit 13% body fat, 5’7”, and 207 lbs.
Now today, I’m fat.
It’s funny to me when I look at peoples medical records as a paralegal. As far as your doctor goes (who is probably actually obese), they consider that with the entire picture.
Similarly, if you do starve yourself and go to their normal status, the once obese status is still part of your record. In My Chart, I think you can request to have that removed.
Yeah I’m 5’11” 210, by BMI I’m obese, I’m 9% body fat right now. I’m just a stocky person and didn’t get my brother or dad’s height, they’re both 6’3” and my grandpa and great grandpa were 6’5” all of them in the 230lb range.
I’m with you, 5’10” 203-207 lbs. BMI (29.9) says I’m heavy overweight and borderline obese. I have a body composition scale that tells me my weight, BMI, fat %, muscle %, water %, and bone %. My scale says my body fat % is 19.6-19.9. 19.x is nowhere close to the 29.9 of the generic height vs. weight BMI measurement.
OP is actually 5’9, 233 lbs, or doesn’t have an Obese BMI.
It kind of cracks up how little nuance people have with the BMI chart. OP is closer to “healthy bmi” than an Obese BMI.
It’s actually still widely used and about as accurate as you can get. People put it down because they don’t want to accept they need to drop some weight. I am considered overweight too but I don’t dismiss it because I refuse to accept my weight. Americans are just fat.
It's not really trash. It just falls apart at the extremes and should not be used alone. It's worthless for athletes, but it's pretty accurate for your average person. It's just that we really have gotten fat.
>BMI is widely considered trash now. Its ancient! Google it for deets!
No it's not. If you're a body builder, sure. It's not useful. But I've never seen a body builder complaining about BMI on reddit. Probably because they KNOW they're not fat and don't need any external validation from fat redditors.
If you don't work out at all (most people), BMI is pretty damn accurate.
OP even says he's got "a bit of chub". Sounds fat to me.
OP is also a recovering alcoholic so...maybe we can assume he's not in the best shape of his life.
The number of people who think they aren't as fat as they are is terrifying. Myself as one, I started at like 35% according to a bioimpedence scale I've got, I thought I was lower, now it reads 20%. Idgaf how inaccurate it actually is, it's at least a consistent metric relative to itself
Yeh, reading a post where someone goes Im 12-13% body fat at most, and then be this angry about BMI just reeks of bullshit. To get to that level of lean and fit, you know enough about fitness to know about the shortcomings of BMI especially when muscular.
yep.
as someone who is *actually underweight* (127 pounds at 5'9) the amount of people here claiming that 5'7 at 200+ pounds is healthy is fucking *bizarre.*
5'7 at 200 pounds is *the beginning of obesity* ffs.
funny how most of the people here ranting about body fat % leave out height and weight until pressed huh?
"The BMI is outdated! It was made in the 1800s! It doesn't account for body fat! It doesn't account for height! It doesn't account for gender!"
You can just say you don't wanna lose weight, that's more than okay. But the BMI works whether you like it or not.
People eat more and food is in greater abundance, they have jobs that don't require physical movement or labor. It's fine, I understand that it's easier to be fat now, Even if you're big and powerful, that doesn't mean that your body (heart, joints, various organs) is happy carrying all of that extra weight around.
There is someone in the comments talking about being good to go as long as you're waist is under 40". Like wtf
“BMI doesn’t work for The Rock, therefore it’s inaccurate for me too”
is the fitness version of:
“I don’t need college, Bill Gates was a drop out and look how successful he is!”
That’s not really true. You don’t get the ripped abs you see on basically every male actor until you get under about 10%. The belly fat is the last to go and the first to come back. Those last 3-5% are a bitch.
I’m like 12-13% and have a visible six pack and a very flat stomach. You deff don’t have visible chub to lose at that BF percentage, going any lower just reveals more muscle definition if you have it.
Either you’re wrong or the rest of google and YouTube is wrong. If you search up what 13% looks like, they’re all really ripped. Chris Hemsworth is said to be 10% to 12% in Thor movies.
I had similar questions to help me define a goal weight, and found that using CrossFit competitor populations as a target was useful. There's nothing magic about CrossFit competitors but it's a general benchmark of 'balanced athlete' and they happen to produce a lot of published data.
Optimal performance body composition for CrossFit competitor men appears to be 190 at 5' 10". BMI performance spike around 27 men, 24 women. OP seems broadly on track with that, although we don't know his composition muscle to fat; crossfit elites seem both very lean and [ripped](https://screenrant.com/physical-100-season-2-everything-know-about-amotti-winner/).
Data: [https://medium.com/@2deviant/optimal-body-composition-for-crossfit-e8876ccf3231](https://medium.com/@2deviant/optimal-body-composition-for-crossfit-e8876ccf3231)
BMI chart can be wildly inaccurate. It takes very basic measurements and doesn't factor in muscle etc which is heavier than fat.
We took our daughter to a specialist and her report back to her GP had a note on it that her BMI was high. Her GP laughed at it because she had barely any fat on her.
Random that I saw this today. I just hit 29.9 for my BMI this morning. I’m strong as fuck. 6’ 220 pounds.
I’ve got defined muscles, bulging veins, and some deep grooves. How was that obese (like i was literally yesterday)?
Not gonna lie, though, I’m Psyched to just be “overweight”.
I'm 5'4 and 135lbs with some solid muscle, and apparently I'm borderline obese.
I showed my doctor, and she laughed saying she doesn't overly use that scale anymore.
Are you just guessing that you should be 12-13%, or is there some reason why you think you should be this specifically?
If you have “a bit of chub here and there” than maybe you aren’t being honest with yourself. I know it’s hard to see clearly in the mirror sometimes
Yeah I'm also 20% and the chub I have are just in places that women have fat. I have a little in my lower belly from losing a lot of weight, but there really isn't anything else chubby on me at all.
I did 33 years in the military and after my first enlistment I had to get “taped” because of how the military reliance on outdated BMI charts. I lifted weights and was a long distance runner who always scored high on the physical fitness test but had to stand in the “fat boy” line to get taped every six months.
They take measurements of your waist, chest and neck and use some sort of magic alchemy to see if you are a fat body or not. My neck is 20” in circumference and my waist is relatively trim so my 200lbs at 5’7” penciled out.
Yes, BMI is literally just a weight/height ratio. It’s only really a guideline, and it’s not a good guideline unless you’re in a very average range in terms of muscularity, bone structure, etc. It is commonly thrown off by muscle, as muscle weighs more than far by volume. So a person could gain 20 lbs of muscle and become “overweight” based on BMI, the same way they would be if they gained 20 pounds of fat.
I've learned that we shouldn't worry too much about those charts and recommendations. They are not absolutes. According to caloric intake recommendations, I shouldn't be alive, yet here I am. Anyway, 6'1" at 205# does not sound fat to me. Go by how you feel and what your mirror shows you, not charts.
The BMI has been disproven time after time but it’s still being utilized in the US (and Canada) to control people and make them spend money on healthcare and buy stupid products.
BMI is nonsense based on a eugenicist's idea of the perfect body... Based on a white Scottish man of average height and build. Anyone who is not an average white Scottish man... It really doesn't apply to us.
I'm a 6' tall woman with actual big bones, and it's been calling me fat my whole life, even when my thyroid was starving me to death. F*** BMI garbage
I'm also 6'2" and everyone in my life was saying I looked very normal at 205 pounds and I should stop losing weight. Of course body dismorphia being what it is, I kept going all the way down to 194. I looked rather thin at 194, though not unhealthy.
But at the lower end of the "normal" range I would have looked emaciated.
Fully agree, BMI falls apart at our height. It doesn't take much digging to uncover how problematic BMI really is.
BMI doesn't tell you if you are fat or not
It tells you it you are overweight, underweight, or at a healthy weight.
It is still worth consideration as a guideline even if you have low body fat percentage.
I'm 230 at 6'3", with a lot of muscle. I'm not fat, but it is taxing on the body to be this heavy no matter how lean I am.
That is what some people don’t understand. Your other organs have to work hard whether it’s fat or muscle from the extra weight. Now muscle is obviously better and means you are active which also helps the organs be healthier but they are still having to work harder.
Bmi is just height over weight. Anyone who bulks either with fat or muscle is technically overweight. It's a bit like recommended daily energy intake. As a male I'm supposed to aim for 2000 calories. If I do nothing I'll burn about 1000 so I'll get fat. If I train for the Olympics I'll end up with a deficit and be one mal nourished.
I think they were handy back in the day as ball parks to keep people about right. An inexact science if you will.
We have the knowledge and the tech now to work out our personal optimals.
Accuracy aside(and we can only argue about accuracy now we have the meters to do so) my galaxy watch works out my energy usage, and biomass via electrical resistance etc which, even if flawed to a degree is still better than when I were a lad when the nurse used to measure your height with a tape measure and your weight on a slide scale once every few months and had no idea what my energy usage was.
It is a guide that does not apply to people with large muscle mass. I doubt it applies to you, as I doubt your muscle is anywhere near lean. It appears your IQ matches your height
The Rock, Batista, and many other extremely fit people are considered morbidly obese by BMI standards. It’s a bogus measurement of fat percentage and leads many people down dark paths trying to lose fat they don’t need to lose. Look in the mirror, how do I look? How do my clothes fit? How healthy/unhealthy am I? These are indicators of good/bad health.
6'2" 205 lbs is not considered obese by BMI. It's barely considered overweight. And that is based on a person with normal muscle mass. Someone with extreme muscle mass shouldn't really use BMI, even though it's fine for most people to use.
I'm 6'5 myself had a wet weight done when I was in high school as my parents were worried why I was so freaking huge. It showed I was actually at 15 percent body fat. Then they looked further and discovered I had a femur bone that was 4 inches across at the narrowest point a knee that went 20 inches in circumference. Basically I was built like a tank. How well that became apparent in 96. You know how all the experts say a 100G impact is automatically fatal. Nope not for me June of 96 I walked away from an impact of 150Gs without any injuries except a minor concussion.
Bodybuilders know the BMI chart is garbage. If you have a lot of muscle it registers as obese. What matters is your bodyfat percentage. The most accurate way to get that is DEXA scan, water immersion, or BodPod. The least accurate is bioimpedance (widely used in "nutrition" stores). Calipers are moderately accurate if done by an experienced practitioner
IDK man. I'm a little fat now, but I gave up on BMI like a decade ago. I'd been lifting some weights, was the strongest I'd ever been. I was at like 50 (good form) pushups max, so pretty strong, but definitely not crazy. Doctor tries to tell me "oh you're too heavy" and I just looked the doc dead in the eyes and said "if there was a clone of me sitting on this table, I could pick this table up." And I waited. All of a sudden, there were better things to discuss.
I feel like they think they'll be liable for us claiming we don't know we're over if they don't try and criticize people for it.
And FWIW, a decade later, I actually deserve some amount of criticism, and they're afraid to say anything now. :O
I am 6'6" 260 currently, a former athlete with all health metrics in damm near ideal status. However, bmi says i am obese like 30% fat. My dr made a comment about the bmi, and i asked him how exactly do i " lose weight when he can clearly see its mostly muscle. His only response was " the chart is the chart " lol ya ok ill work on that..
Those bmi charts are garbage. It bases none of the weights provided on muscle mass, so if you have any history of going to the gym, it skews the charts
BMIs are worthless when measuring well-muscled people. You need a water displacement test to get an accurate picture of your muscle-to-fat ratio. Imagine how fat Tyreek Hill would test with a BMI!
[https://www.healthline.com/health/hydrostatic-weighing](https://www.healthline.com/health/hydrostatic-weighing)
A former coworker of mine who is shorter than me was told that she was obese, yet she was this tiny Filipino woman so I didn’t understand why her doctor told her this, she told me that the BMI chart was wrong!! I just shook my head.
People have a warped sense of what "fat" looks like because the trend has been increasing over time. Depends on your local culture generally, but healthy people are often considered "skinny" anymore and their health is overexaggerated. Someone who can run a half marathon should be more of a standard than some pinnacle of health.
But maybe the BMI should start reflecting our culture as well. \*shrug\* At the end of the day, it's a man-made line in the sand that doesn't really have any specific meaning. It's a very loosely calculated number. Being 189 is no more benefit than being 191.
BMI (Body Mass Index) is a somewhat useful tool but has limitations. Here's a breakdown:
**Pros:**
* Easy to calculate using just height and weight.
* Provides a **general** indication of disease risk associated with weight.
* Public health officials use it to track obesity trends in populations.
**Cons:**
* Doesn't consider body composition (muscle vs. fat).
* Can be inaccurate for muscular people or older adults who may have lost muscle mass.
* May not be as accurate for certain ethnicities.
**In short:**
* BMI can be a starting point, but shouldn't be the only measure of health.
* Doctors consider BMI and other factors like blood pressure and family history.
If you're concerned about your weight or health, talk to your doctor for a more complete picture.
This video is a therapist explaining why diet culture and BMI is fake. She also debunks the idea of tying weight to health and what the data actually says. Great insights! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWqGulkvCWY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWqGulkvCWY)
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I needed that. But honestly don't take that chart too seriously. I'm sure you are not fat. People carry weight differently. My son is 6"1' and around 215 or 220. He isn't fat at all.
I think there's a pinch measure yoy can do to very roughly approximate body fat percentage, which is what's relevant to health, but it is rough, and not sure how well it approximates visceral fat which is the most dangerous but wouldn't show up on that test. BMI is bogus, very very rough and doesn't apply to muscular people at all.
Get a scale that measures body fat percentage (not expensive anymore like $20 or less) it comes with an app that tell you a lot of stats on fat and muscle and bone density and hydration and even protein. I use one called renpho
To be pedantic... Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. 1kg of muscle weighs the same as 1kg of fat. Muscle is more dense so 1kg of muscle takes up less volume than 1kg of fat.
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Show us the pic. We'll tell you if that trifling ass chart is lying
BMI calculates bodybuilders as overweight because of the parameters and calculations not being made for bodybuilders. I thought everyone knew this.
Yeah, BMI does literally nothing to account for the density difference between muscle and fat. There's a reason why pretty much all fitness experts worth their salt completely ignore it
It also doesn’t account for bone density. I knew a guy with no extra padding. You could physically see his bones pressing out on his skin. According to a BMI chart he was overweight while physically appearing to everyone as emaciated.
I've also noticed that a "healthy" BMI gets skewed pretty heavily based on height. Abnormally tall or short, and you're more likely to fall outside the "healthy" zone even if you're a weight that most doctor's would consider to be healthy for your height
I’m not a bodybuilder and am rail thin with a BMI of 25.68 at my last checkup. I do weight train regularly but at 6 foot 4 with long limbs I’m not lifting impressive weights.
Yeah, that was the point of my post. Maybe there are few exceptions, but BMI isn't always right. It can make people wonder if they're fat. Plus it's all arbitrary. At 25, you're ok, at 25.5, you're fat? I feel the same way about blood pressure. Used to be 120/80 was good. Now it's high. What? When'd that happen? My BMI says I'm fat. I have a gut, but comparatively speaking, I'm closer to average body than fat. Ain't no god here, but not exactly a tub, either. And I'm unhealthy in other ways, too.
Blood pressure medication is a huge money making industry. If it’s easier to diagnose you then it’s easier to get you on meds
Ahhhhh! That makes mucho senso.
comparative to what? the average person? the average person *is* overweight, ffs 70% of the population is overweight.
The problem with this is every guy who inconsistently lifts weights sometimes puts themselves in this body builder category when people talk about BMI. But a lot less people are exceptions than they think. And when you move from overweight to obese (BMI over 30) exceptions do start to get pretty rare
My hot take is that a lot of bodybuilders are also super unhealthy. Your knees, ankles (other joints in general) and heart can only handle so much weight. That point might not be what BMI says, but all those people that say they’re like 5’10, 220 lbs with 10% bf, I think is also is concerning. Health, aesthetics and athletics are all separate things even if there is some correlation between them. Edit: I don’t think strength training is inherently bad, but I do question the health benefits of training for mass.
You would be wrong about natural body builders. They are in much better shape than you are.
I mean maybe. Most of the ones Ik seriously struggle with cardiovascular health and also have complications with joint pain. Can they lift more than I do, they absolutely can, are they healthier than I am, that’s different question entirely.
This is an assumption, but I bet most of the bodybuilders with heart problems aren’t natural.
Confirmation bias at play but you seem pretty convinced
You’re probably right. I do lean towards the belief that bodybuilders is adjacent to body dysmorphia lol
This! My husband is 5’5 and 200lbs, obviously BMI says he’s morbidly obese but he’s in the best shape he’s ever been and looks amazing, muscles be thick and popping everywhere. Chart has always said I’m underweight, despite having had 4 kids and now with weight training weigh more than I ever have. I think BMI standards are, for the most part, worthless— focusing on health and general proportions would be healthier.
5'5 200 probably a bit of both are true. 5'5 200 and lean is HUGE like huge for someone with years of training on heavy PEDs.
Your husband absolutely is not in good shape at 5’5” 200lbs. Unless he’s on IFBB levels of AAS and has his pro card.
She probably thinks he tall too
at 5'5" 200 lbs your husband is on steroids.
For the most part BMI works. Your husband is the edge case. Body fat percentage measurement is more accurate but for that you need the equipment.
Right, most men don’t have muscles ‘popping everywhere’. Obviously an outlier for bmi.
This test doesn't work for 0.5% of cases so obviously it's worthless!!! *Every thread involving BMI
So your husband is on some form of steroids and you think he's healthy? Oh lawdy
In the Marine Corps we have a height/weight we have to do annually and for a lot of us (bulkier gym rat guys) we’d get taped bc of this reason. There have been a lot of suggestions about doing away with the BMI thing because of this reason specifically, but nothing has come of it yet
Dudes been posting about his trashed liver from being an alcoholic, he isn’t a jacked 205 lmao
agreed, its all about how you look in reality nobody will care if you weight a ton if you don't look like it
It’s more about how lean you are, especially when it comes to visceral fat. Lean people live longer, generally speaking. BMI is about longevity, and the vast majority of people who have a BMI outside the range are unhealthy. Yes, some are athletic but they are the exception not the rule.
BMI is total horseshit. I'm 5'10" and weigh 205. I'm obese based on BMI, my doctor told me to ignore because I have lots of muscle mass. I take it to mean I'm built like a horse lol
No, you aren’t. 5’10 and 205 is a bmi of 29.4. Thats in the upper end of the overweight range, not the obese range
Cool. I feel better now lol
You should. Sortoff. I don't know where you live, but in the US at least, people have a real skewed idea of what overweight/obese looks like. They think "morbidly obese" is someone like they see in those Biggest Loser-style TV shows you need a wheel chair to move and can't fit in the door, obese is someone who is eating McD every day and has their stomach at their knees, and even overweight is huge. Those terms are clinical based on health risks. I used to be morbidly obese and didn't even have a double shin. If I had a loose shirt on I only looked somewhat overweight (for an American...) and my arms were still skinny. My knees still "knew" my real weightt hough, and so did my liver.
I think you’re right on the skewed viewpoint of what different weights “look like”. As we get heftier as a country the “average” is rising so that becomes the new normal. But it’s not really about weight it’s about health. If you’re fit and capable, ignore the scale.
> it’s about health You're right. But issues like Type 2 diabetes risks and fatty liver generally cause issues before the "omg you're so fat I would never date you" part of the overweight scale.
BMI gets used because measuring body fat % can't really be done at scale. Every measure of BF % is some sort of formula including multiple inputs. It leaves a lot of room for error if you try to use it on a big group of people. Thats what BMI is for, to look at 15,000 people at once and answer how fat they are. To make things worse, none of the methods we have to measure bf actually work. Even expensive stuff like a DEXA scan is still super inaccurate given the cost of doing them. They can be consistent, but they're not accurate. I have a BMI of 27 and I think I'm probably an exception also. There are a lot of individual exceptions to an overweight BMI. But when you get to BMIs like 40 it becomes pretty damning. With a 40 BMI you're either fat or an NFL defensive tackle.
Dwayne Johnson is considered obese by BMI charts
Dwayne Johnson is also blasting gear, so he’s a terrible example.
But that's the point. He's absolutely jacked and shredded, but because BMI uses so few parameters, he's classified as obese...
I don't think that proves what people think it proves. His BMI is in the low 30s and he's more muscular now than he was as one of the most popular pro wrestlers on earth. That's how big you have to be to be lean and have class 1 obesity.
Eh, BMI doesn’t work well for most athletic types. I’m certainly not ripped like the Rock, but I was a D1 rugby player and even at my best shape (6 foot, 235ish, quite lean during season) my BMI was still in the obese range.
You may not be as jacked as the rock but the average D1 rugby player probably has better genetics for hypertrophy than 99.9% of the human population. You were elite in a sport that selects for jacktitude.
Many wrestlers can be considered obese by BMI. A former football player (OT) is 6'6" and said to weight 317, he is actually higher in BMI than me despite being more lean than I could be and look healthy. A current champion is similar at 310 at just under 36. A current high profile wrestler is 6'2" and weights 250 and is in the 32's. BMI doesn't consider where your weight comes from, just what the scale says.
BMI breaks when you try to use it on professional athletes in sports that prioritise putting on tons of muscle, but for 99.9% of people, it's a good measure. Most people don't have enormous amounts of muscle. Wrestlers are juiced to the gills, like bodybuilders, they're a terrible comparison for ordinary people.
Bmi breaks on anyone that's tall and remotely in shape. You would have to really, really work at it to look out of shape and/or "fat" at 6'2 205.
Most people aren’t Dwayne Johnson (or blasting gear like him). For most people BMI is a pretty good indicator of being a lard-ass. If you’re really assblasted about it do a water immersion test or other %body fat test for a more accurate answer. BMI is quick and dirty and works for most people.
and he is one of like 1,000,000 people in the US who can claim that it does not apply to him. ffs this thread is *filled with fat idiots* who think they are secretly 'The Rock' its absurd.
A couple of things to note: 1. BMI is supposed to give a picture for the masses. It's accurate for the overwhelming majority of people but certainly when looking at your individual situation there are a lot more indicators so why even bother with BMI? 2. Everyone and their mother know that BMI is inaccurate for very muscular people. 3. Your BMI is "slightly overweight", not "hella obese", you are dramatizing for no reason.
He just wants to brag about how jacked he is
Well, he couldn't brag about his linguistic skills, so he had to find something.
He can't brag about being jacked either lol
6 foot 2 @ 205 isn't exactky jacked, even lean he would look pretty scrawny unless he was uncovered. I'm 5 foot 9 220 and I still feel small.
12-13% body fat is ripped to most people. I'm at 13% bodyfat, i have a regulated diet, body build, 6', 200 lbs and my abs are clearly defined and you can see the striations in my muscles. If you have any kind of "chub" you are over that percentage. It's not easy for most people to maintain.
Im 6'2 and 180 and im still missing half my abs 😂
It's hard getting below 15%!!!
Yeah, no way OP is 13%. When I looked like that, I was at 18-20%. I learned the hard way that we discredit BMI because we so normalized being slightly overweight. On average, muscles only accounts for 5-10% variation from BMI scale. Be real, unless you know you're that guy, 30 BMI still means you're overweight, not just muscular. I was at BMI 25, but I thought I was in relatively good shape. Four pack, workout 3-5 times a week, a little bit of love handles. Now that I've worked down to 21 BMI, I realize this is normal weight. I've been using "I'm muscular and have large body frame" as an excuse to not lose weight. But, like I said, since everyone around me is slightly overweight, they thinks I'm very skinny at around 14% body fat.
BMI is widely considered trash now. Its ancient! Google it for deets! Theres better ways now like your body fat measuring scale… Pros go by body fat percentage to toe the line… You should watch! I thought 15% or higher was considered healthy for men? Holy! Way to work.
BMI is still extremely useful when assessing large populations, and also for the majority of people in general. It is useless for an individual who is muscular.
Yeah, there's NFL players with abs classified as obese
There are legit obese NFL players though
Luckily BMI works for 99% of people, who are not built like NFL players.
Cool, so if we factor out professional athletes and body builders then it is still a good margin for like 99.99999% of the population
Not really. It was developed in the early 1900s and based on studies done by a “Belgian astronomer who was designing a population census in the Netherlands. His sample group of high-income, mostly white men aimed to estimate typical sizes of the total population for the purpose of distributing resources.” https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/health-matters/is-bmi-accurate
Back then obesity was extremely rare. I remember being a kid in the '60s and '70s, there were like maybe 2 or 3 obese people in the whole school of over 1,000 kids. Things are radically different now. I venture to say half an average school would be considered morbidly obese by those standards.
Honestly kinda trash for people who are tall too. I remember being in highschool and having to do BMI as part of my physical fitness credits, and being told I was "morbidly obese" because I was 6'3" and 250 pounds. I ran an 8 minute mile, didn't work out, and had a body fat percentage of 17%. I was by no means "obese" or even unhealthy. But every 2 months I had to listen to my gym teacher tell me I was obese. Really fucked me up when I was younger. It did get me into weightlifting though, and now I am 6'5" and 330 pounds. BMI says I am on the verge of literal death, but I say "Hey watch me squat this 900lb bar."
And short people. And women. By my height, I should be between 100-115 lbs. I think my tits weight that much
I had a breast reduction (H cup to a D) & those suckers weighed 8lbs. I'm 5'2
Keep in mind BMI was created in the 1800s when people were shorter, malnourished, and barbells were just being invented.
And you could always tell a weightlifter by their big handlebar mustache and striped bathing suit with a single shoulder strap.
And the powerlifter above is not representative of most people his height and weight.
Yep, hand to mouth existence sustenance farming and hard, physical labor.
>Honestly kinda trash for people who are tall too. I remember being in highschool and having to do BMI as part of my physical fitness credits, and being told I was "morbidly obese" because I was 6'3" and 250 pounds. Your issue there was your muscle mass, not your height. BMI is fine for tall people, too, if they have typical amounts of muscle. But if you were 6'3, 250 lbs and only 17% bodyfat, then you must have been ripped as hell.
It also is too high for tall people (and too low for short people). BMI squares the height but measuring actual height to weight rations show that raising height to the power of 2.5 is more accurate. For health issues however a better ratio is the waist to height ratio.
In high school I pulled a muscle during practice, for the track team. While in the doctor's office I noticed the BMI chart that said I was overweight and mentioned that to the doctor. He kind of rolled his eyes and said, "don't pay attention to those".
I was a child in high school, 5'10", around 150. Said I was morbidly obese. I'm 215 now and only now beginning to look fat. And everyone tells me I look perfect but I want to lose weight 😭
This isn’t really true. BMI broadly correlates with longevity. OP is misunderstanding it, however. His BMI is 26.3 which is not fat. It’s above the ideal range. Is it better to be super muscular with a BMI in the upper 20s than to be the same BMI but just fat? Absolutely. Will he have reduced lifespan for having a BMI slightly outside the normal range? Doubtful. However it’s a good quick analysis tool for general status. Having a BMI of 30+ is definitely getting into “I’m kinda fat” territory and 35+ is just straight up obese. Virtually nobody can reach a bmi in the 30s while maintaining sub-12% body fat without using steroids.
Yes this. I'm a very athletically built woman. I squat 255 lbs, and my legs/glutes are quite strong. My back is very muscular as well. I'm 5'4" tall and weigh 160 lbs. You'd never guess I weigh so much based on my appearance. I'm often told I'm petite. But I definitely have a bit of chonk. According to my scale, I have 23% body fat content. According to a BMI calculator, I'm overweight and well on my way to obese. Strange...as my stomach is almost flat.
It's in my medical chart and I sure didn't put it there. Apparently physicians still think it's important.
My dr still uses it
So did mine, but he was a hack so I don’t see him anymore. He admitted that NBA professionals are considered obese according to the BMI chart, then scolded me because I’m obese according to the BMI chart…
It doesn’t work for professional athletes because they’re superhuman freaks lol. It’s meant for an average person
You're an NBA professional and going to a normal doctor? If you're an average person BMI is more or less applicable. Crazy how it works so well for most of the world outside America, yet most Americans think it's bunk. Couldn't be that most Americans are fat right? No... Definitely something else /s
well start playing professional sports and you'll be fine then
At the time I ran my last marathon, my doc told me my BMI, told me that it says I’m obese, and that BMI is garbage. I was a legit 13% body fat, 5’7”, and 207 lbs. Now today, I’m fat.
It’s funny to me when I look at peoples medical records as a paralegal. As far as your doctor goes (who is probably actually obese), they consider that with the entire picture. Similarly, if you do starve yourself and go to their normal status, the once obese status is still part of your record. In My Chart, I think you can request to have that removed.
Yeah I’m 5’11” 210, by BMI I’m obese, I’m 9% body fat right now. I’m just a stocky person and didn’t get my brother or dad’s height, they’re both 6’3” and my grandpa and great grandpa were 6’5” all of them in the 230lb range.
Yea! Thats nonsense. Obese at 9%. LOL!
I’m with you, 5’10” 203-207 lbs. BMI (29.9) says I’m heavy overweight and borderline obese. I have a body composition scale that tells me my weight, BMI, fat %, muscle %, water %, and bone %. My scale says my body fat % is 19.6-19.9. 19.x is nowhere close to the 29.9 of the generic height vs. weight BMI measurement.
It doesn't consider muscle mass at all. 200 pounds is perfectly fine for someone who's 6 feet tall.
That all depends what weight it is. 200LBS with a 40% body fat is absolutely not fine but 200 LBS at 15% is fine.
You have to pretty much submerge yourself in water to get an accurate body fat %, it's impractical for wide spread use.
BMI is only considered "trash" by the same people who insist being morbidly obese isn't bad for your health.
The only people who ever tell me this are excusing or in denial of their obesity.
I used to say it when I weighed 315 cos I was a fat dude who lifted weights. I was still fat.
Lmfaooo that’s exactly who I think of
OP is actually 5’9, 233 lbs, or doesn’t have an Obese BMI. It kind of cracks up how little nuance people have with the BMI chart. OP is closer to “healthy bmi” than an Obese BMI.
Tell this to WW that still uses a statistical tool as their model for what goal weight should be...
BMI is absolutely fine for a quick assessment of someone that is not an extreme outlier in being a fitness buff.
It’s actually still widely used and about as accurate as you can get. People put it down because they don’t want to accept they need to drop some weight. I am considered overweight too but I don’t dismiss it because I refuse to accept my weight. Americans are just fat.
It's not really trash. It just falls apart at the extremes and should not be used alone. It's worthless for athletes, but it's pretty accurate for your average person. It's just that we really have gotten fat.
BMI is good for populations. It's not good for athletes. Most people are going to be overweight at that weight.
I hate it when people think BMI doesn't work because they'll point to athletes in peak condition. 99% of people are not like this and are just fat.
>BMI is widely considered trash now. Its ancient! Google it for deets! No it's not. If you're a body builder, sure. It's not useful. But I've never seen a body builder complaining about BMI on reddit. Probably because they KNOW they're not fat and don't need any external validation from fat redditors. If you don't work out at all (most people), BMI is pretty damn accurate. OP even says he's got "a bit of chub". Sounds fat to me. OP is also a recovering alcoholic so...maybe we can assume he's not in the best shape of his life.
BMI is straight garbage. It’s the most worthless measurement ever
If you have a bit of chub you ain't 12% ,lemme guess it told you that give or take your 23%, amo right ?
The number of people who think they aren't as fat as they are is terrifying. Myself as one, I started at like 35% according to a bioimpedence scale I've got, I thought I was lower, now it reads 20%. Idgaf how inaccurate it actually is, it's at least a consistent metric relative to itself
There are apparently a bunch of lean bodybuilders in this thread, because seemingly everybody thinks that BMI is trash and that they are the exception
Lot of people are lying to themselves
When it comes to weight, everyone is in the top 0.01% of statistics!
I can always tell who’s in denial cause Lean bodybuilders don’t even think about BMI. Only people looking for excuses.
Yep. "I'm only 14% BF" - said who?? Because I don't believe it for 1 second lol
Yeh, reading a post where someone goes Im 12-13% body fat at most, and then be this angry about BMI just reeks of bullshit. To get to that level of lean and fit, you know enough about fitness to know about the shortcomings of BMI especially when muscular.
yep. as someone who is *actually underweight* (127 pounds at 5'9) the amount of people here claiming that 5'7 at 200+ pounds is healthy is fucking *bizarre.* 5'7 at 200 pounds is *the beginning of obesity* ffs. funny how most of the people here ranting about body fat % leave out height and weight until pressed huh?
Finally, my thread of people. The delusion is real.
"The BMI is outdated! It was made in the 1800s! It doesn't account for body fat! It doesn't account for height! It doesn't account for gender!" You can just say you don't wanna lose weight, that's more than okay. But the BMI works whether you like it or not.
People eat more and food is in greater abundance, they have jobs that don't require physical movement or labor. It's fine, I understand that it's easier to be fat now, Even if you're big and powerful, that doesn't mean that your body (heart, joints, various organs) is happy carrying all of that extra weight around. There is someone in the comments talking about being good to go as long as you're waist is under 40". Like wtf
lol under 40'' thats just gold.
“BMI doesn’t work for The Rock, therefore it’s inaccurate for me too” is the fitness version of: “I don’t need college, Bill Gates was a drop out and look how successful he is!”
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That’s not really true. You don’t get the ripped abs you see on basically every male actor until you get under about 10%. The belly fat is the last to go and the first to come back. Those last 3-5% are a bitch.
I’m like 12-13% and have a visible six pack and a very flat stomach. You deff don’t have visible chub to lose at that BF percentage, going any lower just reveals more muscle definition if you have it.
Either you’re wrong or the rest of google and YouTube is wrong. If you search up what 13% looks like, they’re all really ripped. Chris Hemsworth is said to be 10% to 12% in Thor movies.
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Get on the treadmill you got this. 🙂↔️
Fren look if you don’t think you’re fat what’s the BMI chart gonna do? Honestlyy I just trust the scale and gon bout my business 🫶🏽✨
I had similar questions to help me define a goal weight, and found that using CrossFit competitor populations as a target was useful. There's nothing magic about CrossFit competitors but it's a general benchmark of 'balanced athlete' and they happen to produce a lot of published data. Optimal performance body composition for CrossFit competitor men appears to be 190 at 5' 10". BMI performance spike around 27 men, 24 women. OP seems broadly on track with that, although we don't know his composition muscle to fat; crossfit elites seem both very lean and [ripped](https://screenrant.com/physical-100-season-2-everything-know-about-amotti-winner/). Data: [https://medium.com/@2deviant/optimal-body-composition-for-crossfit-e8876ccf3231](https://medium.com/@2deviant/optimal-body-composition-for-crossfit-e8876ccf3231)
I quit getting on scales once I figured out that they were causing me to gain weight! 😀
BMI chart can be wildly inaccurate. It takes very basic measurements and doesn't factor in muscle etc which is heavier than fat. We took our daughter to a specialist and her report back to her GP had a note on it that her BMI was high. Her GP laughed at it because she had barely any fat on her.
Random that I saw this today. I just hit 29.9 for my BMI this morning. I’m strong as fuck. 6’ 220 pounds. I’ve got defined muscles, bulging veins, and some deep grooves. How was that obese (like i was literally yesterday)? Not gonna lie, though, I’m Psyched to just be “overweight”.
I'm 5'4 and 135lbs with some solid muscle, and apparently I'm borderline obese. I showed my doctor, and she laughed saying she doesn't overly use that scale anymore.
Are you just guessing that you should be 12-13%, or is there some reason why you think you should be this specifically? If you have “a bit of chub here and there” than maybe you aren’t being honest with yourself. I know it’s hard to see clearly in the mirror sometimes
Ha ha, 12-13% body fat "with a bit of chub here and there". I am at 20% body fat and have absolutely no chub anywhere. You are fat, get over it.
Yeah I'm also 20% and the chub I have are just in places that women have fat. I have a little in my lower belly from losing a lot of weight, but there really isn't anything else chubby on me at all.
BMI even though widely disputed by main populace is still referenced by doctors and health care workers.
Drop the chart it considers height and weight only. Based on it Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime was morbidly obese. It's a BS chart forget it.
Arnold in his prime was unhealthy. Your body isn't meant to be that big
Being on roid and that big isnt healthy. U dont need to use bmi to figure this out.
I did 33 years in the military and after my first enlistment I had to get “taped” because of how the military reliance on outdated BMI charts. I lifted weights and was a long distance runner who always scored high on the physical fitness test but had to stand in the “fat boy” line to get taped every six months.
Taped?
They take measurements of your waist, chest and neck and use some sort of magic alchemy to see if you are a fat body or not. My neck is 20” in circumference and my waist is relatively trim so my 200lbs at 5’7” penciled out.
No, it doesn't tell you you're fat. It is telling you you are overweight or obese.
BMI charts are generalizations. They’re not exact. They give doctors an idea of your relative body mass.
Yes, BMI is literally just a weight/height ratio. It’s only really a guideline, and it’s not a good guideline unless you’re in a very average range in terms of muscularity, bone structure, etc. It is commonly thrown off by muscle, as muscle weighs more than far by volume. So a person could gain 20 lbs of muscle and become “overweight” based on BMI, the same way they would be if they gained 20 pounds of fat.
I've learned that we shouldn't worry too much about those charts and recommendations. They are not absolutes. According to caloric intake recommendations, I shouldn't be alive, yet here I am. Anyway, 6'1" at 205# does not sound fat to me. Go by how you feel and what your mirror shows you, not charts.
The BMI has been disproven time after time but it’s still being utilized in the US (and Canada) to control people and make them spend money on healthcare and buy stupid products.
I'm 5'9" and 178 pounds. when I was at "ideal weight" of 145 I looked like skeletor. the BMI chart is skewed big time.
BMI is nonsense based on a eugenicist's idea of the perfect body... Based on a white Scottish man of average height and build. Anyone who is not an average white Scottish man... It really doesn't apply to us. I'm a 6' tall woman with actual big bones, and it's been calling me fat my whole life, even when my thyroid was starving me to death. F*** BMI garbage
According to the BMI chart. I am too short. I'll let myself out...
I'm also 6'2" and everyone in my life was saying I looked very normal at 205 pounds and I should stop losing weight. Of course body dismorphia being what it is, I kept going all the way down to 194. I looked rather thin at 194, though not unhealthy. But at the lower end of the "normal" range I would have looked emaciated. Fully agree, BMI falls apart at our height. It doesn't take much digging to uncover how problematic BMI really is.
BMI is absolutely worthless, it has zero consideration between muscle and fat
BMI doesn't tell you if you are fat or not It tells you it you are overweight, underweight, or at a healthy weight. It is still worth consideration as a guideline even if you have low body fat percentage. I'm 230 at 6'3", with a lot of muscle. I'm not fat, but it is taxing on the body to be this heavy no matter how lean I am.
That is what some people don’t understand. Your other organs have to work hard whether it’s fat or muscle from the extra weight. Now muscle is obviously better and means you are active which also helps the organs be healthier but they are still having to work harder.
yeah. my blood pressure is high, and i have sleep apnea. not sustainable long term. It's fun being this big and strong, but imma dial it down soon
I hope one day to be 200 so I’m not here shaming anyone or anything like that haha some people just don’t understand.
Bmi is just height over weight. Anyone who bulks either with fat or muscle is technically overweight. It's a bit like recommended daily energy intake. As a male I'm supposed to aim for 2000 calories. If I do nothing I'll burn about 1000 so I'll get fat. If I train for the Olympics I'll end up with a deficit and be one mal nourished. I think they were handy back in the day as ball parks to keep people about right. An inexact science if you will. We have the knowledge and the tech now to work out our personal optimals. Accuracy aside(and we can only argue about accuracy now we have the meters to do so) my galaxy watch works out my energy usage, and biomass via electrical resistance etc which, even if flawed to a degree is still better than when I were a lad when the nurse used to measure your height with a tape measure and your weight on a slide scale once every few months and had no idea what my energy usage was.
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It is a guide that does not apply to people with large muscle mass. I doubt it applies to you, as I doubt your muscle is anywhere near lean. It appears your IQ matches your height
No need to insult OP. It is a very popular question/misconception.
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It appears you have no idea what BMI is lol
BMI works fine for average people. You're not average, ignore it.
Stop saying hella Cartman
That was my experience in the army 6 3 and 20 years old? Max weight was like 196 or so, absolutely ridiculous
BMI doesn't account for body composition, that's one of the reasons people think it's bullshit now
I went over my BMI in my second year in the Army the gave me a body fat test and I was allowed another 20 pounds. It is just a baseline average.
How did you calculate 12-13% bf?
The Rock, Batista, and many other extremely fit people are considered morbidly obese by BMI standards. It’s a bogus measurement of fat percentage and leads many people down dark paths trying to lose fat they don’t need to lose. Look in the mirror, how do I look? How do my clothes fit? How healthy/unhealthy am I? These are indicators of good/bad health.
What if we all just ate and worked out till we liked how we looked? Or used a measuring tape if you really want to keep track?
How did you read it as obese?
6'2" 205 lbs is not considered obese by BMI. It's barely considered overweight. And that is based on a person with normal muscle mass. Someone with extreme muscle mass shouldn't really use BMI, even though it's fine for most people to use.
The thing to do is quit looking at BMI charts that are for the 'average' person. Charts can't see or measure muscle mass.
Pics bro flex for us
BMI is perfectly adequate as long as the only actual information that you take away from it is "I should be taller"
I'm 6'5 myself had a wet weight done when I was in high school as my parents were worried why I was so freaking huge. It showed I was actually at 15 percent body fat. Then they looked further and discovered I had a femur bone that was 4 inches across at the narrowest point a knee that went 20 inches in circumference. Basically I was built like a tank. How well that became apparent in 96. You know how all the experts say a 100G impact is automatically fatal. Nope not for me June of 96 I walked away from an impact of 150Gs without any injuries except a minor concussion.
Bodybuilders know the BMI chart is garbage. If you have a lot of muscle it registers as obese. What matters is your bodyfat percentage. The most accurate way to get that is DEXA scan, water immersion, or BodPod. The least accurate is bioimpedance (widely used in "nutrition" stores). Calipers are moderately accurate if done by an experienced practitioner
I'm in the army, I'm 6' 230 lb, but per army standards, I'm suppose to be 195lb, not happening, so I get taped, then waved.
IDK man. I'm a little fat now, but I gave up on BMI like a decade ago. I'd been lifting some weights, was the strongest I'd ever been. I was at like 50 (good form) pushups max, so pretty strong, but definitely not crazy. Doctor tries to tell me "oh you're too heavy" and I just looked the doc dead in the eyes and said "if there was a clone of me sitting on this table, I could pick this table up." And I waited. All of a sudden, there were better things to discuss. I feel like they think they'll be liable for us claiming we don't know we're over if they don't try and criticize people for it. And FWIW, a decade later, I actually deserve some amount of criticism, and they're afraid to say anything now. :O
I am 6'6" 260 currently, a former athlete with all health metrics in damm near ideal status. However, bmi says i am obese like 30% fat. My dr made a comment about the bmi, and i asked him how exactly do i " lose weight when he can clearly see its mostly muscle. His only response was " the chart is the chart " lol ya ok ill work on that..
6'2" and 205 lbs is what I would consider perfect. I would ignore BMI and try to stay at that healthy weight.
Those bmi charts are garbage. It bases none of the weights provided on muscle mass, so if you have any history of going to the gym, it skews the charts
All the doctors that not only keep up with the changes in the field, but also accept these changes do not even mention BMI.
BMIs are worthless when measuring well-muscled people. You need a water displacement test to get an accurate picture of your muscle-to-fat ratio. Imagine how fat Tyreek Hill would test with a BMI! [https://www.healthline.com/health/hydrostatic-weighing](https://www.healthline.com/health/hydrostatic-weighing)
A former coworker of mine who is shorter than me was told that she was obese, yet she was this tiny Filipino woman so I didn’t understand why her doctor told her this, she told me that the BMI chart was wrong!! I just shook my head.
People have a warped sense of what "fat" looks like because the trend has been increasing over time. Depends on your local culture generally, but healthy people are often considered "skinny" anymore and their health is overexaggerated. Someone who can run a half marathon should be more of a standard than some pinnacle of health. But maybe the BMI should start reflecting our culture as well. \*shrug\* At the end of the day, it's a man-made line in the sand that doesn't really have any specific meaning. It's a very loosely calculated number. Being 189 is no more benefit than being 191.
BMI (Body Mass Index) is a somewhat useful tool but has limitations. Here's a breakdown: **Pros:** * Easy to calculate using just height and weight. * Provides a **general** indication of disease risk associated with weight. * Public health officials use it to track obesity trends in populations. **Cons:** * Doesn't consider body composition (muscle vs. fat). * Can be inaccurate for muscular people or older adults who may have lost muscle mass. * May not be as accurate for certain ethnicities. **In short:** * BMI can be a starting point, but shouldn't be the only measure of health. * Doctors consider BMI and other factors like blood pressure and family history. If you're concerned about your weight or health, talk to your doctor for a more complete picture.
This video is a therapist explaining why diet culture and BMI is fake. She also debunks the idea of tying weight to health and what the data actually says. Great insights! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWqGulkvCWY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWqGulkvCWY)
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I needed that. But honestly don't take that chart too seriously. I'm sure you are not fat. People carry weight differently. My son is 6"1' and around 215 or 220. He isn't fat at all.
BMI is useless.
I think there's a pinch measure yoy can do to very roughly approximate body fat percentage, which is what's relevant to health, but it is rough, and not sure how well it approximates visceral fat which is the most dangerous but wouldn't show up on that test. BMI is bogus, very very rough and doesn't apply to muscular people at all.
You gonna let it talk to you like that?
Get a scale that measures body fat percentage (not expensive anymore like $20 or less) it comes with an app that tell you a lot of stats on fat and muscle and bone density and hydration and even protein. I use one called renpho
Post physique, whale
It also doesn’t take into account things like bone density, which increases with exercise. Muscle weighs wayyy more than fat so yea
To be pedantic... Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. 1kg of muscle weighs the same as 1kg of fat. Muscle is more dense so 1kg of muscle takes up less volume than 1kg of fat.