In reply to: BMI is an absurd measure posted by atl_irish
...30 BMI due to their NFL linebacker/MLB all-star physiques?
The math is the math, but I am skeptical (with no basis besides my own limited observations) that a BMI of 30 or more is the best way to define obesity for the entire population if it indicates 40% of adult Americans are obese.
Not a study, but 538 post on this “BMI is a terrible measure of health”
Partial text:
Taken alone as an indicator of health, the BMI is misleading. A study by researchers at UCLA published this month in the International Journal of Obesity looked at 40,420 adults in the most recent U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and assessed their health as measured by six accepted metrics, including blood pressure, cholesterol and C-reactive protein (a gauge of inflammation). It found that 47 percent of people classified as overweight by BMI and 29 percent of those who qualified as obese were healthy as measured by at least five of those other metrics. Meanwhile, 31 percent of normal-weight people were unhealthy by two or more of the same measures.2 Using BMI alone as a measure of health would misclassify almost 75 million adults in the U.S., the authors concluded.