this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2024
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The body mass index has long been criticized as a flawed indicator of health. A replacement has been gaining support: the body roundness index.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

BMI is specifically not an amazing metric, for populations or individual people. The article goes into its flaws at length, but to summarize :

Its 200 years old, and is based nearly entirely on white men, with no design consideration for women or POC. It also fails utterly to account for muscle, so it classifies many very fit people as obese.

Its only use is that it's been in used for so long it can be used as a historical measurement to compare generations to each other.

Complicated math in the age of smartphones is a non issue. I used that very equation without even knowing it, within seconds. It's also not required more than once/year if you do the very simple thing I discussed above.

[–] databender 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If a person is obese by BMI and the weight is actually muscle it's obvious to everyone. They're either in fantastic shape or they're a powerlifter (all of who know the health risks of the amount of fat they're carrying). BMI isn't wildy off in ways that will surprise a doctor.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Have you read the article’s part about diabetes?

[–] databender 1 points 2 months ago

Yes; I'm not saying that BRI isn't better.

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