Often, serious medical issues go unnoticed or are incorrectly seen as weight-related problems This can lead to late diagnoses, treatment, and care Despite the wide use of BMI among all adults, it may not accurately reflect the health of certain racial and ethnic populations. For example, numerous studies have shown that people of Asian descent have an increased risk of chronic disease at lower BMI cut-off points, compared with white people 34 , 35 , Numerous studies have shown that these alternative cut-off points better identify health risk among Asian populations.
Still, more research is needed to compare these cut-off points with multi-generation Asian Americans 39 , 40 , Also, Black people may be misclassified as overweight despite having lower fat mass and higher muscle mass.
This may suggest that chronic disease risk occurs at a higher BMI cut-off point than in people of other races, especially among Black women 35 , 42 , 43 , In fact, one study found that Black women were considered metabolically healthy at cut-off points 3.
Finally, relying only on BMI ignores the cultural importance of body size to different groups. In some cultures, higher fat mass is viewed as healthier and more desirable. A larger waist circumference — one greater than 35 inches 85 cm in women or 40 inches A high ratio greater than 0. A low ratio lower than or equal to 0. Body fat percentage is the relative amount of body fat a person has. It distinguishes between fat mass and fat-free mass and is a more accurate representation of health risk than BMI.
Convenient assessment tools such as skinfold measurements, portable bioelectrical impedance analysis, and at-home scales come with a high risk of error. More accurate tools such as dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, underwater weighing, and BodPod are expensive and inaccessible for many. Lab tests are various blood and vital sign measurements that can indicate chronic disease risk e.
Other body assessment tools can be used instead of BMI, such as waist circumference, body fat percentage, and blood tests. However, each comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, a low BMI below That said, BMI fails to consider other aspects of health, such as age, sex, fat mass, muscle mass , race, genetics, and medical history.
Though BMI can be useful as a starting point, it should not be the only measurement of your health. While doctors appreciate the statistical nature of BMI, the problem with it is that it can focus too much on the numbers. Think biological and lifestyle factors like the quality of your diet, your genetics, how much you exercise or whether you drink or smoke. For weight-loss surgery, that means a multidisciplinary team evaluates your diet, mental health and whether you meet medical and surgical criteria.
The other issue with BMI, Halter says, is that it can actually be pretty misleading. Take, for example, someone who happens to be fairly muscular. It would be easy to dismiss the controversy around BMI by saying that medical professionals use their best judgment when evaluating patients instead of just relying on what the numbers say. But the truth is that doctors are humans with preferences and unconscious biases, too. We need to give more credit to weight stigma and the pressures or fear that patients might feel when they want to come to their doctor.
Papanek recommends that if you need a more accurate measurement of your physiology, go to a research laboratory or ask your physician for a more effective way to measure your health. Search Query Show Search. Lake Effect. About WUWM.
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