Health and Tech: BMI system extremely flawed

Does not give an accurate picture of body fat or an individual’s overall health status

Hyderabad: What is the first thing that a majority of Indians do when they want to find out whether they are overweight, underweight, or obese? They immediately start checking the Body Mass Index (BMI) table, which they might have ‘Googled’ to ascertain whether they are within the ‘safe’ limits of body fat.

But do you know that the BMI system is extremely flawed and does not give an accurate picture of body fat and is not a true diagnostics of body fat or does not give a correct picture of an individual’s overall health status.

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If we follow BMI tables to ascertain the body weight or overweight status of individuals, then chances are that it might indicate world-class athletes like Virat Kohli or Neeraj Chopra as either obese or overweight. Before falling into the BMI trap, health-conscious people must realise the greatest flaw of the BMI system. The problem with BMI is that it is calculated on the basis of body weight to height and does not consider muscle mass as a parameter while calculating the overweight status of an Individual.

As a result, top-notch athletes like Virat Kohli or Neeraj Chopra, despite being lean, agile, and muscular, could be deemed as overweight by the BMI table due to the simple fact that muscle mass weighs more than fat.

What is BMI and what it implies?

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a formula that is calculated by dividing an individual’s height by the square of that same person’s height. The resultant number of this division falls under different bodyweight categories including severely underweight, underweight, normal, overweight, moderately, and severely obese.

Usually, a high BMI indicates high body fat. As a result, individuals with high BMI might be at risk of a host of diseases including lifestyle ailments like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. However, people must realize that BMI is not the ideal measurement of body fat and it always ends up overestimating or underestimating the body fat levels among individuals.

Traditional BMI table is not meant for Indians

The BMI table assigning body fat numbers based on the height and weight of an individual was first innovated exclusively for body types of Caucasians or white Europeans.

The height and weight of Asian individuals are quite different from that of Europeans, which makes the BMI index a highly flawed way of understanding body fat among individuals. The BMI measurement of a typical European individual will be quite different from their Indian counterparts, who tend to be less muscular and have a lot of fat around their abdomen and hips.

Waist to height ratio could be ideal

Realising inherent flaws in BMI, researchers have now started developing waist-to-height ratio tables as an ideal way to measure the risk of fat among individuals and accurately indicate risks of obesity, diabetes, strokes, hypertension, etc. Just like BMI, it is obtained by the size of waist-to-height ratio. As a broad rule, individuals should keep their waist circumference not more than half of their height.