Health Alert 133
According to our government, I’m fat. My Body Mass Index (BMI) is 27.5. That’s smack dab in the middle of the overweight range. The government defines overweight as a BMI over 25 and under 30. A BMI of 30 or more is obese.
The truth is I know I’m not fat. My chest measures 43 inches and my waist 30. But my BMI made me wonder if your physician may have used this government fiasco to falsely accuse you of being fat. And, worse yet – told you to go on a low-fat diet that will starve your muscle, brain and heart – and eventually will make you fat.
In this letter, you’ll learn how to avoid bad advice based on the bad science called BMI. And you’ll see better ways of assessing your level of fat vs. fit.
* BMI =Bungling Medical Ignorance *
BMI is a calculation based on weight and height. Since it compares only your weight to your height, it doesn’t differentiate fat from muscle. Muscle is denser than fat so it will increase your BMI more than fat will. As you might guess, this failure exposes the measurement to considerable potential for error.
For example, Brad Pitt’s BMI calculates to about the same as mine labeling him as overweight as well. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone calculate as frankly obese.
Before you dismiss this as obvious nonsense consider that virtually all statistics on obesity use this system of measurement. The fact that it is widely used by government health agencies, insurance companies and almost all medical doctors tells us how little they know about physical fitness.
You should not use your BMI at all. It is so nonspecific that it means next to nothing. Measure your body composition instead. Body composition measures how much of your weight is fat and how much is lean muscle mass. Men should have 10-20% body fat and women should have between 15-25%. At a medical conference I had an accurate body composition done. These were the results:
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Body Composition Analyzer
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Height
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5 ft. 8.0 in
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Weight
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180 lb
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BMI
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27.5
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Fat %
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11.3%
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Fat Mass
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20 lb
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Lean Body Mass
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160 lb
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Only 20 lbs of my overall weight is actually fat. And at 11.3% body fat, I fall in the low range of health body fat percentage for men. I don’t believe there would be any health advantage for me to get any leaner. This is quite different from the impression you would get from my BMI calculation. Don’t be conned by the BMI. You just might not be overweight after all.
* Truly Revealing Measurements *
There are several ways you can measure your body composition. The most accurate easy way is with skin calipers. You can get them at exercise equipment stores or you can order them online at ( www.bodytrends.com). They come with simple instruction manuals. It’s best to measure at three different body sites and average the measurements to get an accurate body fat percentage.
Another simple method is to measure your waist and hip girths. Simply wrap a tape measure around your waist at your navel and record the number in inches. Next measure the circumference around your hips at their widest point.
Waist girth should be less than your hip girth for both men and women. Even better is a waist girth 1 or more inches less than hips for men. Women are healthiest to have a waist 3 or more inches less than their hips.
Another even easier way is to grab your skin between your finger and thumb just to the side of your navel and measure the thickness of the skin fold. It should measure less than 1 inch in both men and women. Even these rough approximations of your body fat are more useful than the archaic and misleading BMI.
Al Sears, MD