Why is BMI the Wrong Indicator?

What is BMI Scale?

BMI = Weight in kg divided by the square of height in meters! According to the BMI indicators, a BMI between 18.5 – 25 is healthy, between 25 – 30 is overweight & above 30 is obese!

Is BMI a Wrong Indicator?

However, BMI can often give a very wrong idea about your fitness levels. BMI scale does not consider body composition.

Our total body weight is = water + bone + muscle + fat weight. Body composition refers to the percentage amount of fat & muscle mass. One could have very low muscle mass with very high fat mass and still, have his total weight within the prescribed range as per the BMI!

Such a person will be skinny fat and would have a normal BMI scale range. While he is clinically not obese, the metabolic parameters could be very similar to that of an obese person. This is called MONW (Metabolically Obese Normal Weight)

The person you see on the left is one such and is unhealthy even though the BMI indicators suggest otherwise! Such people are highly susceptible to many lifestyle diseases such as diabetes etc

The person on the right has a good body composition with a body fat percentage of around 12-15% & ample muscle mass. The BMI of the person however which is 26 suggests, he is overweight and unhealthy!

Ignore BMI! Check the body fat percentage instead. A healthy male should range 12 – 20% of body fat, while a healthy female fat range is 15 – 22%