30% of People with a Healthy BMI are Actually Obese

GayLubeOil · 2016-10-03T01:26:04+00:00

The next time you see an Obeast at a restaurant check to see if they are dinking a soda. The answer is yes

faded_jester · 2016-10-03T00:07:37+00:00

I don't really need science to understand if someone is a fattie. I just look.

whatsazipper · 2016-10-02T23:54:38+00:00

So the situation is even worse than we thought.

victor_knight · 2016-10-03T00:46:59+00:00

I remember years ago arguing/debating with a health freak about the traditional BMI calculation versus muscle/body fat ratio and he was adamant that it was not simply a matter of muscle = good. He said it had to do with total weight or pressure on the organs and bones as well. In other words, you can be 300 lbs with 8% body fat but you're still "obese" or rather, "unhealthy". Besides, doctors and insurance companies still swear by the traditional BMI and use it to enforce all kinds of policies. Employers too.

marinewannabee97 · 2016-10-02T23:08:03+00:00

Isn't BMI a bit shit anyways? Isn't bodyfat a much better measurement?

MattyAnon · 2016-10-03T00:17:12+00:00

So much for that excuse/male hamstering.

BMI is full of shit if you're muscular or tall. Why the fuck should it scale as the SQUARE of height? Cube-with-offset (overheads for head, brain etc) would make more sense.

real-boethius · 2016-10-03T01:34:59+00:00

So

A significant fraction of "overweight" people according to BMI are not actually overweight.
A small fraction of "obese" people according to BMI are not actually obese.
A lot of people with "normal" BMI are actually obese.

You would think that maybe BMI is a garbage metric and it should be replaced by something else? Why didn't somebody do that?

Somebody did!

Calculator for ABSI and link to paper showing how much better it is. Only requires one more measurement - waist.

http://absi-calc.appspot.com/

MyTrapsCauterize · 2016-10-03T02:04:34+00:00

BMI is used for seeing trends in populations, not individuals. If you are using BMI to talk about anything less than THOUSANDS of people, you're a window licking idiot who doesn't understand the subject. BMI has nothing to do with whether a single individual is fat or not. As many have mentioned, athletes and lifters routinely are in the "athletic" range for body fat, but their BMI number would put them at obese. Also, unless you're on steroids, you probably have AT MOST 20 extra Lbs of muscle from lifting, so even heavily muscled your BMI won't shift very far (you're just fat).

JizzWall · 2016-10-03T16:12:12+00:00

My BMI is 30.5. Funny that an obese guy can have a 6 pack.

2016-10-03T01:54:16+00:00

Yep, BMI actually underestimates how overweight the average person is when compared to using body fat percentage.

red_pill_account1 · 2016-10-04T21:15:08+00:00

Sweet, I'm in that 5% of people that are considered overweight but I'm actually not (I have 6 pack abs). I must be doing something right.

spencen16 · 2016-10-02T23:18:03+00:00

BMI does not take muscle mass into account, simply height and weight. Obviously, it's not a great measurement with so few factors.

Mckallidon · 2016-10-03T02:50:57+00:00

This shit is always off point. Unless you're average as fuck. When I wanted to get into the army, they said I needed to lose 30 lbs according to their height-weight chart. I had fucking abs and was built as fuck. I needed a waver because of this even though the recruiter was actually fat and I'm just built like a goddam bear. I know in my balls I could do more push-ups than this guy. All that hassle because of averages from relative stats.

This study suffers in the other direction. Amwricans are so fat that our normal is fat and our overweight is obese.

stonecats · 2016-10-03T04:25:17+00:00

it's kind of like women in a size 8 dress think they are thin,
when in fact an 8 today was a 16 chub - 30 years ago.

thank you madison avenue...

2016-10-03T20:12:06+00:00

The vast majority of people on a western diet are overweight, and have some symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Its time for DEXA scans to become a routine thing in yearly physicals.

SgtBrutalisk · 2016-10-04T14:18:45+00:00

Body weight really means so little except when it's extreme (both over and under).

arrayay · 2016-10-05T02:44:01+00:00

BMI is a shit metric, quit making excuses for it. What are you trying to find out? Body fat right? So why not use one of the actual methods of calculating body fat? And no, not some idiotic device that sends electrical charges.

Use DEXA or hydrostatic weighing to find your body fat percentage. That is what is important. The rest is just bullshit engineered for the medical industry to profit off of you.

All that said, most of the US is fat obese fucks, so whatever.

hailhailhailandkill · 2016-10-03T12:33:31+00:00

Skinny fats that underconsume protein aside; same goes for cholesterol levels too. There are lots of skinnies with high blood cholesterol level while lots of overweight actually have them at normal level. Appearance is not everything, got to have it checked.

Thin bones vs thick bones, skeleton structure, rib cage, leg-torso ratio etc these are all variables that create visual difference among even same height & weight.

IMO the key is Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis instead of BMI!

Fat-free mass and total body water are also significant indications which have to be checked beyond some 101 BMI formula. It also reveals some other points such as dehydration & fat relationship.

Check this page out for how to read BIA results: http://www.bodyanalyse.no/docs/720%20how%20to%20read%20result%20sheet%20v2.pdf

Title	30% of People with a Healthy BMI are Actually Obese
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	147
Comments	107
Date	October 2, 2016 9:23 PM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/TheRedPill
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/55kcb2/30_of_people_with_a_healthy_bmi_are_actually_obese/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/TheRedPill/30-of-people-with-a-healthy-bmi-are-actually-obese.63425 https://theredarchive.com/post/63425

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