Re: BMI vs Bodyfat percentage

[Guest guest]

Bodyfat percentage is how fat you REALLY are. (Don't take it on a Tanita

scale though because that scale only measures the bottom half of the body

and comes out low for a guy and high for most women).

BMI is how fat the government has decided people are this week. It's

loosely based on the old Met Life tables only unlike the Met Life tables

(which were based on math calculations and NOT the Met Life build studies),

BMI does not make accounting for gender, body type, muscularity, and bone

size. So this means that most Olympic athletes who have a bodyfat

percentage of 5-10 percent are obese or fat according to BMI standards.

What BMI was originally intended for was that overweight can be a sign of

other things wrong. So if the BMI was high, this was a red flag for the

medical provider to check further for health problems.

Of course, like the public did with IQ scores (meant to show possible

problems in school studies) in the 50's , the public now uses BMI as a guide

to beauty, morality and total health. Which is something that GOOD medical

providers DO NOT DO. But of course, we love to classify people by numbers.

I liked IQ better because I do better with that than I do with BMI.

Additionally whereas everyone has a scale and can measure weight and

determine BMI, measuring bodyfat has its own set of problems. The most

accurate is when you get dunked in a tank - this isn't much fun assuming you

can find the tank and there are trucks which frequent gyms which offer this

service for about $25 bucks. And dunking is, of course, messy.

The second most accurate is the have someone who knows what they are doing,

measure with calipers - they usually do three parts of the body and decide

by a formula what the bodyfat percentage might be.

Tanita scales work only if you apply the formula on the result - which I

happen to have somewhere if anyone is interested. This formula was

derrived from a friend of mine getting dunked and then going home and

weighing on a tanita scale.

The BMI shows ONLY if you are " overweight " but not if you are fat. Most of

us with a lot of muscle and /or big bones are overweight.

My BMI is 34 which is " obese " but my bodyfat percentage is 29 which is in

the normal range.

Generally speaking one should look at the bodyfat percentage to see if one

has to lose weight " for health " .

Sue

PS: according to the Met Life build studies, the 5'4 " woman of 49 least

likely to die, weighed 194. (Gaesser, 2002)

does anybody know

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> What's the difference between BMI and body fat percentage?

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> I'm confused!

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